PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Waves splash up towards houses on the west coast of Trinidad yesterday evening as Hurricane Ivan approached the island. (Photo: AP)

JAMAICANS were last night warned of the possibility of taking a whack from Hurricane Ivan later this week after the storm's roar through the Eastern Caribbean yesterday, leaving a trail of damage in the Windward Islands.

Ivan, which strengthened to a Category Four hurricane last night, was about 20 miles west-south-west of Grenada, or a little over 1,000 miles east-south-southeast of Jamaica, on a track which meteorologists say placed it on course for Jamaica on Thursday or Friday.

It was moving towards the west at about 19 miles an hour and was expected to keep that course into this evening, possibly building further strength as its travels over the warm waters of the central Caribbean Sea, heading towards the north-western Caribbean.

"There is a very strong possibility that we could get a direct hit because the current track would take it (Ivan) directly over Jamaica," Evan Thompson, the head of the Meteorological Office's weather branch, said last night.

But Thompson emphasised that the hurricane's course could shift, taking it away from Jamaica. If the situation remained the same, the island could be placed on hurricane watch today.

However, on the storm's current direction, the Met Service said last night that Jamaica could start experiencing a deterioration in weather conditions by tomorrow.

It advised fishermen, especially those on the Morant and Pedro Cays, off Jamaica's south coast, to prepare to evacuate by early today, if the situation warranted it.

Yesterday, having landed glancing blows on Barbados, St Lucia and, St Vincent, Ivan scored a direct hit on Grenada tearing down scores of homes and hurling hundreds of the island's landmark red zinc roofs through the air.

There were no immediate reports of injuries in Grenada.
"Grenada felt the full brunt of this storm," said Chris Hennon, a meteorologist at the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami. "Ivan's eye was split in half over the island" with the northern part in the eye wall being the most dangerous, he said.

St George's, with its historic English Georgian and French provincial buildings, is in the south.

Ivan's sustained winds were clocked at 120 mph yesterday as it raced through the Windward Islands.

Earlier Tuesday, Ivan damaged at least 176 homes in Barbados, which was buffeted by gusts up to 90 mph as it passed south of the island, according to relief director Judy Thomas and meteorologists. Other buildings, including hotels, were also damaged.

"We are very lucky," said Chester Layne, Barbados' chief meteorological officer. "Had we been impacted by the main core of Ivan ... it could have been catastrophic."
In neighbouring St Vincent and the Grenadines, about 600 people sought shelter and at least 45 houses were damaged, officials said.

A half-dozen houses in St Lucia lost roofs. Two people there fell while helping neighbours repair roofs and were hospitalised, officials said.

Further south in Tobago nearly 600 people were in shelters and two high schools lost roofs.

Airports, schools, government offices and most private businesses were closed on affected islands.

A hurricane warning remained in effect for Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines last night. A hurricane watch was posted for the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. Tobago, Martinique, St Lucia and Barbados all were under tropical storm warning.

Ivan is the fourth hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season and the strongest to ever develop at such low latitude in the Atlantic hurricane history. It follows fast on the heels of Hurricane Frances that plodded through the Caribbean, killing two persons as it ravaged sections of The Bahamas before heading to Florida where it left 14 persons dead, millions of dollars in damage and displaced nearly three million of the state's residents.

Last night Ivan's hurricane force winds extended up to 69 miles from its centre, with tropical force winds reaching 94 miles.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) planned to hold a meeting of its national response team today.

"They will be placed on alert for any eventualities and we will also be checking their level of preparedness," said Nadine Newsome, the ODPEM's information and training officer.

According to Newsome, shelter managers have been placed on alert and all parish disaster committees and co-ordinators have been notified to have parish emergency operating centres ready.

"In the meantime, we are asking Jamaicans to monitor the radio forecast and make arrangement for personal and property safety," she said.

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