KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC — Hurricane Tomas was moving over open water this morning on a path that could take it near Jamaica later in the week.

Earlier the storm ravaged St Lucia and St Vincent tearing off roofs, damaging houses and downing power lines.

Government officials in St Lucia said that high winds tore off the roofs of a hospital, a school and a stadium and toppled a large concrete cross from the roof of a century-old church.

Authorities in St Vincent said they had unconfirmed reports that three people died during the storm yesterday, including two men who might have been blown off a roof.

At least 20,000 people were without power on Martinique, and streets flooded and tree branches were down. A cruise ship carrying nearly 2,000 tourists docked instead in Dominica.

Tomas earlier toppled power lines and damaged houses in Barbados as a tropical storm.

The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Thomas had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph early this morning and was centred about 95 miles west of St Lucia. It was moving west-northwest at 8 mph.

The US hurricane centre said Tomas was likely to strengthen as it moved toward Jamaica and could unleash heavy rains on southern areas of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which is struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake and cope with a recent cholera outbreak.

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