Residents in Jamaica were today faced with the devastation caused by
Hurricane Dean.
Trees were uprooted and roofs ripped off houses in southern Jamaica as the
hurricane's devastating journey through the Caribbean continues.
And Northern Ireland ex-pats now living in Jamaica have told the Belfast
Telegraph about the fear and chaos among local people as they prepared for
the arrival of the ferocious storm.
Ulster holidaymakers scheduled
to fly out to the region this week have been urged to abandon travel plans
until the threat of Dean has passed.
The Foreign and Commonwealth
Office in London has advised against all non-essential travel to Jamaica,
the Cayman Islands and the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.
Meanwhile,
residents in Texas were making preparations for Dean's arrival. The
authorities have passed out sandbags, evacuated inmates and opened emergency
operations centres in the region.
The federal government encouraged
people in the southern part of the state to be ready for the worst.
"If I was a Texas resident, particularly along the south-east coast, I
would make sure I was ready," R. David Paulison, head of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, told reporters in Washington.
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