COCKBURN TOWN, Turks and Caicos Islands — Hurricane Ivan crashed into Jamaica late Friday, inundating coastal areas with two-story-high breakers after government appeals went unheeded by most of the 500,000 residents urged to evacuate.
Only about 2,000 Jamaicans had taken cover in public shelters when the Category 4 hurricane, packing sustained winds of up to 155, mph raged into eastern Jamaica 10 hours later than forecast, slowed but not weakened on its path toward the southeastern United States. At least 37 deaths already had been blamed on Ivan since it revved up east of the Windward Islands a week ago.
At least 26 of the deaths occurred on Grenada, where the full extent of Ivan's devastating rage as it passed through Tuesday and Wednesday was becoming apparent only Friday because of the loss of power and communications. Friday broadcasts on Caribbean radio stations quoted Prime Minister Keith Mitchell as estimating that 85% of the main island's housing was a shambles and that the nutmeg plantations that produce the country's main cash crop had been destroyed.
In Jamaica, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson declared a state of emergency in a national address Friday and urged those who could get to a shelter to do so.
"What we're experiencing now is only the beginning," Patterson said as waves rose more than 20 feet over a low-lying causeway leading to the closed airport near Kingston, the capital. "I cannot stress too strongly that Ivan is a dangerous hurricane."
As winds intensified and word spread of the storm's devastation elsewhere, many Jamaicans professed determination to tough it out in their homes.
"The wind is strengthening and we're getting a lot of rain, but so far so good," said 76-year-old Harry Hawkins, a retired telecom worker hunkered down in his home five miles outside Kingston. He said he was putting his fate "in God's hands" and going to sleep despite the storm's howling around him.
Much as Hurricane Frances bogged down last week, adding an agonizing wait to the fear and disruption of millions of lives throughout the Caribbean, Ivan's progress toward Jamaica slowed as soon as airports, public services and businesses closed, leaving Jamaicans stranded, holed up in the dark and too nervous to sleep.
"Slowing down is not good. It could mean that we could have tropical storm-force winds for an extended period," Bryan Bambury of Jamaica's Meteorological Service told reporters, noting that flooding was already occurring in low-lying areas of the capital hours before the full brunt of Ivan made landfall in this country of 2.7 million.
