Powerful Hurricane Dean roars toward Jamaica

KINGSTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) Hurricane Dean was on the verge of becoming a rare Category 5 storm today as it roared toward Jamaica and the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico after hammering the eastern Caribbean, where it was blamed for at least three deaths.

Millions of people were under storm alerts in some of the most populous areas of the Caribbean, including parts of vulnerable Haiti and its teeming capital, Port-au-Prince, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and all of mountainous Jamaica, which was in the direct path of the powerful hurricane.

With sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kilometres per hour) and gusts over 185 mph (300 kph), Dean was a Category 4 storm, the second highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.

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

Jamaica's political parties suspended campaigning for August 27 national elections as residents prepared for Dean. Lines formed at gas stations and people crowded markets, emptying shelves of batteries, canned tuna, rice and bottled water.

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

''Hurricane Ivan three years ago is a very strong memory for a lot of Jamaicans and it was a very scary moment.'' Dean's progress was being watched by energy markets, which have been roiled by hurricanes since powerful storms in 2004 and 2005 disrupted oil and gas production. Energy firms evacuated workers from offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, home to a third of US domestic crude production.

The latest computer models showed Dean hitting Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula around Tuesday before emerging in the Gulf of Mexico. Most had the storm hitting the Mexico coast but one took it ashore in southern Texas on Wednesday or Thursday.

VULNERABLE HAITI Dean's destructive core was expected to stay off Haiti's south coast. But tropical cyclones frequently trigger deadly flash floods and mudslides in the deforested, poverty-stricken country of 8 million people. A brush with Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004 killed nearly 3,000.

At 2030 IST, the center of Dean was located 565 miles (910 km) east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and was moving to the West-northwest at 17 mph (27 kph), the US National Hurricane Center said.

Dean trampled Martinique, St Lucia and Dominica yesterday as a Category 2 storm, pounding the islands with 100 mph (160 kph) winds and torrential rains that triggered landslides, lifted roofs off houses and knocked out power.

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency reported three people were killed in Dominica and St Lucia.

In France's Caribbean territories, Dean destroyed all of Martinique's banana crop and 80 per cent of the plantations in nearby Guadeloupe, said the head of the banana producers union, who estimated damage at up to 161 million dollar.

French officials said 70 per cent of Martinique's sugar cane plantations were destroyed.

Dean could emerge from the Yucatan in the southern Gulf and disrupt operations in the Cantarell Complex of Mexican oil fields, which is one of the world's most productive and supplies two-thirds of Mexico's crude oil output.

Category 5 hurricanes are as rare as they are powerful.

Until the record-busting 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, records showed only two years -- 1960 and 1961 -- with more than one Category 5 storm.

But in 2005, four hurricanes reached that strength --Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Wilma became the most powerful hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic.

Across the region, fishing boats were ordered into port, tourists scrambled to get out and residents got ready.

''We can't get visas for the US because we are from India. So we are going to stay in our townhouse for the storm,'' said Uma Kumar in the Cayman Islands. ''It got a foot a water in it from Hurricane Ivan so if it floods we will move upstairs.'' REUTERS SYU RAI2342