ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada -Hurricane Ivan took aim yesterday at Jamaica and possibly Florida after killing 23 people in five countries and devastating Grenada, where police fired tear gas to stop a looting frenzy, and frightened students armed themselves with knives and sticks.
Ivan, the deadliest hurricane to hit the Caribbean in a decade, pummeled Grenada, Barbados and other southern islands on Tuesday. Yesterday, it strengthened into a Category 5 storm -the most powerful, with 160 mph winds -and was expected to hit Jamaica, where officials urged a half million people to evacuate coastal and flood-prone areas.
The dead include a 75-year-old Canadian woman who drowned in a canal swollen by flood waters in Barbados after braving the storm to search for her cat and four youngsters who were swept away by a giant wave yesterday in the capital of the Dominican Republic.
U.S. officials ordered people to evacuate the Florida Keys after forecasters said the storm -the fourth major hurricane of a busy Atlantic season -could hit the island chain by Sunday after crossing over Cuba. It was the third evacuation announced there in a month, following hurricanes Charley and Frances.
Officials also considered evacuating the 1,000 American citizens in Grenada, mostly university students who said they wanted to leave.
The storm left its worst damage in Grenada, where, from the air, it appeared that nearly every house had been uprooted. Mounds of twisted metal and splintered wood torn from homes were strewn across hillsides and roads. Many trees were snapped in half, and those left standing were stripped of their leaves. The stone walls of the capital's cathedral withstood the storm, but the entire roof collapsed.
In St. George's capital, police fired tear gas to attempt to stop a looting frenzy. Hundreds of people, including entire families with children, smashed hurricane shutters and shop windows to take televisions and shopping carts of food. An Associated Press reporter watched families walk away with bed frames and mattresses on their heads.
Troops from other Caribbean nations were on the way to help restore order.
Yesterday afternoon, police set up barricades on roads leading into the capital and ordered all but emergency personnel off the streets. Hundreds of screaming people said they had to get to town to buy water and food. Police fired more tear gas.
It's Ivan the Terrible
said fisherman Peter Kission. We've been through this before. We can take another. 17
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