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PORT-AU-PRINCE : Hurricane Dean threatened Saturday to grow into a monster category five storm as it barrelled across the Caribbean toward southern Haiti, which ordered a red alert fearing a direct hit.
Haiti froze air flights and coastal shipping through Sunday and prepared to evacuate seaside regions in Dean's path as the storm appeared poised to hit the island at midday Sunday.
"Arrangements have been made to evacuate people living in the zones at risk and shelter has been sought in other areas," a civil defence official said.
The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said that Dean was packing sustained winds of up to 240 kilometres (150 miles) per hour, just short of the maximum category five storm level with potential for devastating damage.
Hurricanes of this magnitude can bring huge storm surges of 5.5 metres (18 feet) or more and can require the massive evacuation of areas as far inland as 10 kilometres (six miles).
A slight southerly shift in direction meant it might miss crucial US Gulf of Mexico oil installations.
But it was still headed directly for Jamaica, where Friday the prime minister held an emergency meeting to prepare for the hurricane, which could disrupt general elections scheduled for August 27.
Dean was also on track to smash through the Cayman Islands and then the Yucatan peninsula, with its famous Cozumel and Cancun resorts. It is forecast then to head through the southern Gulf of Mexico -- where Mexican offshore oil fields are located -- and push toward the refining centre and key port city of Tampico, according to Hurricane Centre projections.
At 1500 GMT, the center of the storm was 990 kilometres (615 miles) east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 400 kilometres (250 miles) south-southeast of Santo Domingo in the Dominican republic.
The Hurricane Centre said Dean was blowing sustained winds of 240 kilometres (150 miles) per hour, just short of the level of a category five storm.
But speed fluctuations kept the centre from forecasting more intensification until more data could be collected, it said.
The US State Department has authorized its non-emergency personnel and family members in the Yucatan city of Merida to relocate temporarily to Mexico City.
"The Department of State recommends that the US citizens in Quintana Roo, Yucatan, and Campeche prepare themselves for the possibility of the hurricane's landfall in those regions," the advisory said.
Mexico's National Weather Service said the hurricane could make landfall on the peninsula Monday or Tuesday.
In Quintana Roo state on the eastern side of Yucatan, authorities have set up 500 emergency shelters. "Sixty thousand tourists are staying in the area, and we can ensure their safety at all times," Gabriela Rodriguez, the state official in charge of tourism, told AFP.
Earlier, Dean left flooding and devastation in the eastern Caribbean.
In Martinique, it caused widespread flooding early Friday in the southern part of the island, with the town of Riviere-Pilote completely under water.
"This is real devastation," a local official said by telephone. Violent winds tore the roofs off the local fire and police stations and numerous other buildings, the official said.
One third of Martinique's population of some 115,000 people have been left without electricity by the storm, and nearly 100 percent of Martinique's banana crop and 70 percent of its sugarcane crop had been lost, according to Paris officials.
In a statement Saturday French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the government would stand behind the people of Martinique and Guadeloupe, after ordering the secretary of state in charge of the French Overseas to the region to evaluate the damage.
- AFP /ls
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