Hurricane Dean Storms Through Caribbean

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FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique (AP) -- Hurricane Dean tore through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique on Friday, ripping roofs from buildings, downing trees and knocking out power.

Airports were closed, coastal hotels were evacuated and tourists hunkered down in shelters as 100 mph winds swept over the islands.

The eye of Dean, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, passed between St. Lucia and Martinique, which are less than 50 miles apart, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

''We don't have a roof ... everything is exposed. We tried to save what we could,'' said Josephine Marcelus, a resident of Morne Rouge, a town in northern Martinique. ''We sealed ourselves in one room, praying that the hurricane stops blowing over Martinique.''

At 8 a.m. EDT, Dean was centered about 50 miles west-southwest of Martinique and moving west at about 23 mph. The Category 2 hurricane was expected to intensify as it entered the warm waters of the Caribbean, heading toward Jamaica.

''I saw the roof of a municipal building fly off. This is a very hard thing to experience right now,'' said Louis Joseph Manscour, deputy mayor of Trinite on Martinique.

Laurent Bigot, director of a crisis team on the French island, warned people to stay inside.

''We may not be spared on this occasion as it appears that we are likely to experience the worst,'' said Stephenson King, the acting prime minister of St. Lucia, an English-speaking, independent island.

It was too early to tell whether the storm would strike the United States, but officials were gearing up for the possibility. Texas was already dealing with the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin, which dropped up to 7 inches of rain in parts of San Antonio and Houston. Officials throughout central and southern Texas braced for 10 inches to 15 inches by Friday morning.

At least four people died Thursday in Erin's thunderstorms.

Shell Oil Co. evacuated 188 people this week from offshore facilities in Erin's path and said Thursday that it was monitoring Dean.

Martinique officials set up cots at schoolhouse shelters while residents lined up at gas stations and emptied supermarket shelves.

''It's the first time I've seen this, all our water supply completely gone in less than two hours,'' said Jean Claude, a supermarket manager.

In St. Lucia, radio and television advisories urged people to stock up on canned food and fill their cars with gasoline. Volunteers knocked on doors to make sure people knew about the storm.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Dean would likely be a dangerous Category 3 hurricane by the time it reaches the central Caribbean. Forecasters say it appeared to be heading south of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola.

It predicted storm surge flooding at 2 to 4 feet above normal tide levels near the center of Dean as it passes over the Lesser Antilles and total possible rainfalls of 10 inches in mountainous areas.

Tropical storm warnings have been issued for the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and St. Maarten, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

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HISTORIC HELL STORM SET FOR JAMAICA

FLASH: Could be unprecedented event for Jamaica; direct hit with 155 MPH sustained winds [topping Hurricane Gilbert's 135 MPH winds [sept. 1988] and Charlie's 100 MPH winds in 1951]... Population of Jamaica is nearly 3 million people; and is 49th most densely-populated country in world...