JAMAICAN authorities readied last night for the possible evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the flood-prone areas of the island's south coast as the country braced for a thumping from Hurricane Emily after last week's rainy attack from Dennis.

Having earlier tormented Grenada and slightly bruising other islands in the Eastern Caribbean's Windward chain, Emily was at seven o'clock last night moving on a path that suggests it will sometime tomorrow sideswipe the island's southern coast, much in the fashion of Ivan nine months ago.

The hurricane was, at that hour, 712 miles east-southeast of Morant Point, Jamaica's most easterly tip in St Thomas, galloping towards the west-northwest at 20 miles an hour.
It packed sustained winds of more than 115 miles an hour, with showers, thunderstorms and gusty winds extending for up 312 miles from its centre.

"Emily . could begin to affect Jamaica's weather as early as tomorrow (this) afternoon," the Met Service said.

Prime Minister P J Patterson (second right) listens as Sylvia Mcgill (left), head of the Meteorological Division gives an update on Hurricane Emily at an emergency meeting of the National Disaster Committee at Jamaica House yesterday. At second left is permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Pat Sinclair McCalla, and beside Patterson is the Minister of Land and Environment Dean Peart. At right is Local Goverment Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

In the face of the danger, Prime Minister P J Patterson yesterday summoned the National Disaster Committee for a meeting at Jamaica House and told them to put in motion plans for a massive evacuation, should it become necessary.

"The evacuation may start by the latest tomorrow morning (today) if the hurricane continues along its present path," Jamaica House, the prime minister's office, said.

When Ivan threatened last September, the Government warned up to half-a-million people living in sections of the south coast to evacuate. Most resisted although several thousand people did find their way to shelters.

This week in Parliament, Patterson announced the Government's intention to pass legislation allowing for the forced evacuation of people in times of threatened disaster.

"There is no mandatory law that says they (residents) must move," said Nadene Newsome, the head of information at Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).

"All we can do is to tell them of the hazards and threats."
Newsome said that the shelters and emergency systems put in place for Dennis were still operational and ready to be cranked up for Emily.

"It is still very much in place and nothing has been pulled down," she said. "We are still in a disaster response mode."

In the event of the need for evacuation today, Patterson said public transportation would be utilised to move persons and that larger facilities would be used as temporary locations for accommodation.

He also instructed that $100,000 be made available to each of the island's 60 constituencies through the Social Development Commission (SDC) to assist with hurricane preparation. The local government ministry had separately announced that between $250,000 and $300,000 would be made available for preparation of shelters.

Disaster relief agencies were stockpiling relief supplies at central locations in parishes.

"Emily is likely to deposit significant rainfall and heavy showers virtually all over Jamaica," Patterson said, urging Jamaica to head for shelter if advised. "The ground is already saturated from Hurricane Dennis, and persons should take every possible precaution and be prepared to move when those instructions are given."

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