Hurricane Ivan lashes Jamaica; 37 dead

Ferocious hurricane Ivan hit eastern Jamaica with huge tidal waves, heavy rains and destructive winds knocking down trees and power lines as the human toll taken by it when it cut its deadly path through the Caribbean rose to 37.

Large areas were already in darkness in Jamaica when the storm hit last night as the power companies had turned off electricity to save damage to the equipment.

Ivan with sustained winds of 250 km per hour gained strength as it neared Jamaica but the full extent of its destruction would not be known for several hours.

Cuba, which too is awaiting the fury of the storm, declared hurricane watch over the entire island and its
leader Fiedel Castro himself went on the television to warn people against Ivan's ferocity and pledged to rebuild whatever damage the storm would do.

In far away Florida Keys, people too were evacuating as forecasters warned that Ivan could cut though as early as Monday though they were not definite as yet to the path that Ivan would take and where exactly it would hit the United States.

At least some 60,000 people are expected to leave the Keys area.

Prior to pounding Jamaica, the hurrican had calimed a total of 37 lives in the Caribbean islands.

It had destroyed or damaged 90 houses in Grenada and killed 17 people. People have no water or power.

In Washington, a State Department official said all Americans on Grenada who wish to leave the island would be flown to Trinidad aboard chartered US aircraft.

The United Nations has put its humanitarian agencies on alert to move into Jamaica after the hurricane Ivan passes through the island nation.

A five-member UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination team is working with officials in Jamaica and staff from the International Federation of Red Crescent and Red Cross Committees to help organise the response there to the tropical storm, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said yesterday.

The UN put its disaster staff in place and emergency health kits on standby in Jamaica to respond to the hurricane, which is one of the strongest in the last decade to hit the Caribbean.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has also pre-positioned emergency health kits around the country, while humanitarian officials plan to conduct an aerial survey immediately after the hurricane passes.