Its official.....category 5

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Hurricane Dean now 'catastrophic' Category 5

Dean now a Category 5 hurricane

Mon. August. 20 2007 8:46 PM ET

As the surf starts to ominously kick up on the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, U.S. forecasters say hurricane Dean has reached Category 5 strength.

"Data from the Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft currently investigating hurricane Dean indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to 257 kilometres per hour, making Dean a potentially catastrophic Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a news release issued at 8:35 p.m. ET on Monday.

The hurricane was already a ferocious Category 4 storm when it passed the Cayman Islands in the morning.

At 8 p.m. ET, the center said Dean had sustained winds of 245 km/h and was expected to strengthen further.

Category 5 hurricanes have sustained winds of more than 249 km/h. They are the largest and most destructive category.

Hurricane-force winds extend out 95 kilometres on either side of Dean's eye, and tropical-storm strength winds go out 335 km. Dean was 335 km east of Chetumal, Mexico, which is about 280 km south of Cancun, at the time of the latest advisory.

The storm, which has led to 10 deaths so far, is moving at 32 km/h and will continue to track either west or west-northwest.

A hurricane warning is effect from Belize to Cancun, and a tropical storm warning for areas north of Cancun, which itself sits on the northeast corner of the peninsula.

Cancun-Cozumel to be 'spared' direct hits

Joe Bastardi of AccuWeather told CTV Newsnet that the hurricane would likely make landfall around Chetumal.

"It's good news as far as Cancun-Cozumel goes," he said, referring to two very popular resort areas. "They will both be spared direct hits."
The relatively less populated areas to the south will bear the brunt, he said.

Dean will lose strength over the Yucatan Peninsula but will regain some power before it hits near Tampico, Mexico sometime on Wednesday.

Tampico is about 350 km south of Texas. But Bastardi said the hurricane won't return to Category 4 or 5 status.

The storm has already had an impact on Mexico's oil production in the Gulf of Campeche just west of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Mexico's Pemex state oil company is pulling all 18,000 workers off its oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico as hurricane Dean bears down.

The move will cut the company's production by 2.65 million barrels per day, representing an 80 per cent drop in output.

Tourists leave Mexico, Jamaica takes stock

Officials in the Mexican resort city of Cancun had organized additional flights to let tens of thousands of tourists leave before Dean arrived. The hotel zone was largely emptied out.

Forecasts have shifted the projected path to the south, but Cancun could still see tropical storm-force winds.

The threat of the storm comes mere months after many resorts in Cancun reopened in the wake of damage from hurricane Wilma, which hit Mexico in October 2005.

"Everyone is so much better prepared than they were for Wilma," said Jennifer Stowe, a Canadian teaching in Cancun.

"It was like a freight train," she said, recalling the noise. "Continuously for almost the whole 36 hours."

Her school is being set up as an emergency shelter.

Dean's eye passed south of Jamaica on Sunday night and the island is now assessing the storm's aftermath.

Evadne Coye, Jamaica's high commissioner to Canada, told CTV Newsnet that a full damage assessment hasn't been done yet, although three deaths are confirmed.

"We have heard from telephone calls ... that damage to the agricultural sector has been very great," she said.

Jamaica's south coast took a pounding. Coye described that area as the country's breadbasket.

"Food prices are going to be shooting up in the very near future as part of the impact of hurricane Dean," she said.

The country's vital tourism industry is centred mainly on the island's north side.

Dean bore down on the Cayman Islands late Sunday after battering Jamaica, but the wealthy British protectorate said Monday it had been spared the brunt of the storm.

Dean's eye passed some 160 kilometres south of the Caymans, and the islands were spared hurricane-force winds.

Canada has offered up to $2 million in aid for Caribbean countries damaged by the hurricane. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said his department has had no reports of Canadian casualties.

Dean is the first storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

With a report from CTV's Tom Walters and files from the Associated Press