Hurricane Dean Blows Into Caribbean, Targets Gulf

Typography
Hurricane Dean grew into a major storm with 125 mph (200 kph) winds on Friday after it smashed into the Caribbean islands, knocking out power and setting off landslides before heading toward the oil and gas rigs of the Gulf of Mexico.

MIAMI - Hurricane Dean grew into a major storm with 125 mph (200 kph) winds on Friday after it smashed into the Caribbean islands, knocking out power and setting off landslides before heading toward the oil and gas rigs of the Gulf of Mexico.


Dean strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane capable of widespread destruction after it roared through the narrow channel between the Lesser Antilles islands of St. Lucia and Martinique, crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the warm Caribbean Sea.


The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Dean would grow to a Category 4 storm, the second-highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with 150 mph (240 kph) winds as it races toward the Gulf, home to a third of U.S. domestic crude oil and 15 percent of natural gas production.


Energy markets have been skittish about hurricanes since powerful storms in 2004 and 2005, including Ivan, Katrina and Rita, disrupted oil and gas production. Transocean, Royal Dutch Shell, Murphy Oil and other companies pulled dozens of workers from offshore rigs.


Dean, the first hurricane of what is expected to be an above-average Atlantic season, lifted the roof off the pediatric wing at Victoria Hospital in St. Lucia's capital, Castries, but patients had already been moved, officials said.


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Heraldine Rock, an ex-government minister in the former British colony of 170,000 people, said the storm ripped roofs off houses and damaged at least two banana plantations.


"In one village, telephone and power lines are down, they're strewn all over the road, trees are uprooted and are blocking the roads," she said. "In another village, a landslide has been reported, cutting off any access to the airport."


Deputy Prime Minister Leonard Montoute said at least two people were injured when a tree fell on their house.


"I'm told that the coastal areas have taken a severe battering, there's debris all over Castries in the capital and flood waters on the roads," he said.


On neighboring Martinique, an elderly man died of a heart attack during the storm and six people were injured, according to France's state office for overseas territories. Electricity company EDF said 95 percent of homes were without power.


HEADING FOR GULF


By 2 p.m. EDT, Dean was 175 miles west of Martinique and moving west at about 22 mph (35 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.


Category 3 to 5 storms, referred to collectively as "major" storms, are generally the most destructive and have included infamous hurricanes like Katrina.


Dean's projected path would take it near Jamaica by Sunday and toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula or straight into the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Channel by Tuesday.


If it crosses the Yucatan, it is projected to emerge in the southern Gulf as a Category 3 storm and could 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.


One weather model projected that Dean would hit Louisiana, which bore the brunt of Rita and Katrina.


Storm alerts were in effect across the Caribbean region, including Hispaniola, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Anguilla, Grenada, Saba, St. Eustatius, Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Maarten.


Forecasters have predicted the six-month hurricane season would be more active than average with up to 16 named storms. An average year historically has 10 to 11 storms.


(Additional reporting by Michael Christie in Miami, Linda Hutchinson-Jafar in Port of Spain and Laure Bretton and Kerstin Gehmlich in Paris)