Thousands Seek Shelter As Hurricane Dean Hits Jamaica

Thousands of Jamaicans were fleeing coastal areas last night as Hurricane Dean roared through the Caribbean and slammed into the island. The government declared a 48-hour curfew and a national emergency as offshore winds of 145mph and torrential rain reached land, triggering mudslides and threatening widespread destruction.

Hurricane-force winds began lashing the island yesterday afternoon, said Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters said the island would take a near-direct hit, with Dean's eye passing just to the south last night.

The storm has claimed at least eight lives, including a boy washed out to sea by huge waves, while tearing through the Dominican Republic and the Lesser Antilles islands of Martinique and St Lucia. It wiped out banana crops and wrecked infrastructure.

After Jamaica the hurricane is expected to brush the Cayman islands before hitting Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, making oil markets skittish about supplies from the Mexican gulf.

Mexican authorities evacuated some Caribbean communities, and the US president, George Bush, issued an emergency declaration for Texas to release federal assistance.

The US space shuttle Endeavor left the international space station to return to Earth a day ahead of schedule in case Nasa is forced to evacuate its mission control center in Houston.

In Jamaica, tourists competed for flights off the island before the airport closed. Troops and police were put on alert and electricity was due to be cut to protect the grid. People were bussed to schools, churches, the indoor national sports arena and other evacuation centers.

The prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, appealed to those in flood-risk areas to move to safer ground. "Do not wait for the last minute to make the decision to move from where you are. Decide now and begin to make arrangements to leave now." Thousands heeded the call and headed inland to towns where people were stockpiling tinned food, water, flashlights, blankets, candles and plywood. But others decided to stay.

"We are going nowhere," Byron Thompson, in Port Royal, told Reuters. "If you come by here later today you will see me drinking rum over in that bar with some friends."

Since last Friday Dean has been a category four hurricane, but it was expected to strengthen into a potentially disastrous category five, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale.