Jamaican Rasta-Niggers Warned to Get Haircuts Before Arrival of Hurricane Dean

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293529,00.html

Caribbean Prepares for Hurricane Dean

Friday, August 17, 2007

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Islanders went door to door Thursday to warn

neighbors of Hurricane Dean, which spun toward the Caribbean packing 100 mph

winds and threatens to strengthen into an extremely dangerous storm by next

week.

The first hurricane of the Atlantic season is expected to pass over St.

Lucia and the rest of the Lesser Antilles early Friday, then intensify as it

enters the warm waters of the Caribbean. It was too early to tell whether

the storm would eventually strike the United States.

Click here to track Hurricane Dean:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4%2Bshtml/084023.shtml?5day#contents

St. Lucia's acting prime minister, Stephenson King, announced that the

country's two commercial airports were closing Thursday night as the storm's

outer bands began moving through the islands. Martinique's main airport was

also closed.

"We may not be spared on this occasion as it appears that we are likely to

experience the worst," King said.

Walter Lech, a medical resident from Boston vacationing in Dominica, said he

learned about the hurricane Wednesday when he saw islanders pull boats from

the water. Lech and his wife could not find flights off the island and plan

to ride the storm out in their rented cinderblock house.

"We're going to take the brunt of it full on, but our neighbors here have

been through it (before) and they're not all that worried," Lech said.

About 300 American medical students from Dominica's Ross University were

stranded at the island's airport Thursday until family members hired private

planes, said Dr. Mauricio Gomez, from the UCLA Medical Center in California,

whose fiancee was among the students. Most arrived in Puerto Rico to await

flights on Friday bound for the United States, Gomez said.

Hotels in Dominica and Martinique, meanwhile, prepared to move tourists from

seaside rooms.

At the Jungle Bay Resort & Spa, on Dominica's Atlantic coast, about 18

guests will spend Thursday night in a reinforced steel-and-concrete shelter,

hotel spokeswoman Laura Ell said.

"Everyone's very calm but taking it seriously," she said.

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.

The government also canceled commemoration events planned for the 152

Martinique residents who died in a plane crash a year ago.

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 is taking a bead on Jamaica and the southern coasts of

the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola, and

could strike the islands on Sunday.

As it approaches the Mexican resort town of Cancun, on the Yucatan

Peninsula, on Tuesday it could be an extremely dangerous Category 4

hurricane, the hurricane center said.

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 7 inches in mountainous areas.

Hurricane Dean strengthened to a Category 2 storm Thursday as it moved

closer to islands in the eastern Caribbean, forecasters said.

At 2 a.m. EDT, Dean was centered 85 miles southeast of Martinique and 90

miles northwest of Barbados. It had top sustained winds of 100 mph, up from

90 mph earlier in the day.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for the islands of St. Lucia, Martinique,

Dominica and Guadeloupe.

Tropical storm warnings have been issued for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto

Rico, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis,

Anguilla and St. Maarten, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

A tropical storm watch was issued for the south coast of the Dominican

Republic from Cabo Engano to the Haiti border.