Jamaica braces for Hurricane Dean

By Carole Beckford

KINGSTON (Reuters) - Jamaicans snapped up emergency supplies as Hurricane Dean bore down on their Caribbean island, threatening to become a rare Category 5 storm when it later nears Mexico's Yucatan and the oil rigs of the Gulf of Mexico.

The first hurricane of what is expected to be an above-average 2007 Atlantic storm season has already pounded the eastern Caribbean, where it killed at least three people.

It was blamed for three more deaths on Saturday as millions went on alert in some of the most populous areas of the Caribbean including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and all of mountainous Jamaica.

With sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km per hour), Dean was a Category 4 storm, the second-highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It was expected to smash into Jamaica on Sunday.

It could become a Category 5 storm within two days, with sustained winds of more than 155 mph (250 kph).

Just before 5 p.m. EDT, Dean was located 455 miles east-southeast of Kingston and about 165 miles

south of Santo Domingo. It was moving west-northwest at 18 mph (30 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

CAMPAIGN HALTED

Jamaica's government urged people to flee low-lying and landslide-prone areas, buses were marshaled to transport evacuees and police and troops were put on alert.

Lines formed at gas stations and supermarket aisles were crammed as shoppers bought batteries, flashlights, canned tuna, rice and bottled water.

"I am prepared, but I still want the storm to change direction," said a man in one store who did not give his name.

Campaigning for August 27 national elections was halted.

"The country is on high alert," said Kerry-Ann Morris, a spokeswoman for Jamaica's disaster preparedness office.

Three people died in the Dominican Republic, where the hurricane sent 18-foot (5.5-meter) waves crashing onto southern beaches.

One of the dead was a 16-year-old Haitian swept out to sea. The others were crushed when their tin-and-wood hut collapsed under the wind and rain, officials said.