Hurricane Dean developed into a category 4 storm packing winds closest to its concentric eyewall of over 140 miles per hour as the eye passed 50 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica late Sunday. Dean flooded the capital city and some building damage was reported. The country's power company turned off electricity on Sunday in anticipation of a direct hit from Dean. Heavy rain that fell north of Kingston triggered mudslides in the mountainous portions of the country.
Dean then set its sights on the Yucatan Peninsula as it progressed on a generally westward track and strengthened into a category 5 storm, the highest rating on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The popular resort city of Cancún was spared the worst of the damage as Hurricane Dean made landfall early this morning near Costa Maya, Mexico, just north of the Belize border. Dean became the first category 5 hurricane to make landfall since Hurricane Andrew did so on August 24, 1992 in Homestead, Florida where winds were at 165 miles per hour and at 920 millibars of pressure. Cancun was devastated from Hurricane Wilma two years ago and had just been recovering back to pre-Wilma conditions when Dean beared down on the Yucatan Peninsula over the last 24 hours.
But Chetumal wasn't as lucky with the city of over 150,000 residents having lost power and took the brunt of 165 miles per hour winds being close to the eye of the storm. Dean is now making its way across the southern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula this afternoon. Thanks to the flat landscape, Dean has maintained above minimal hurricane-strength winds at 85 miles per hour as of 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time and is expected to move into the Bay of Campeche tonight. The hurricane may briefly regain strength as at least a category 2 storm before making a second landfall tomorrow possibly near Tampico, Mexico.
No comments:
Post a Comment