Three major hurricanes stormed USA in two weeks
Three major hurricanes have been through in two weeks - Charley, Frances and the deadliest of them all, &to=http://newsfromrussia.com/science/2004/09/15/56087.html' target=_blank>Ivan, which killed 68 people in the Caribbean. Jeanne became the 10th named storm of a busy Atlantic season Tuesday.
Tropical Storm Jeanne has become a hurricane, raising the threat to the Dominican Republic, Haiti and hundreds of islands in the northern Caribbean.
Jeanne's sustained winds grew to 80 mph as it walloped Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that is home to about 4 million people, and the Dominican Republic.
Residents on the north coast of Haiti, the poor nation of 8 million that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, were warned to expect tropical storm conditions. Haiti has been largely deforested and is vulnerable to deadly flash floods and mudslides.
The southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, a British colony, were also under storm alerts.
At 1 p.m., the centre of the storm was over the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic at latitude 18.7 north and longitude 68.4 west, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said, informs Reuters.
According to The Washington Times, after killing two people in Puerto Rico, tropical storm Jeanne was upgraded to a hurricane Thursday as it reached the Dominican Republic with 80 mph winds.
Jeanne was headed toward &to=http://english.pravda.ru/fun/2002/10/04/37761.html' target=_blank>Florida, but forecasters at the hurricane center said they expected it to turn north before it reached the peninsula.
Northwestern Florida and Alabama were being raked by &to=http://newsfromrussia.com/accidents/2004/09/16/56102.html' target=_blank>Hurricane Ivan early Thursday as southern and central Florida attempted to recover from Hurricanes Charley and Frances, which both struck within the last month.
More than 1,000 people evacuated low-lying areas for shelters Wednesday as deluges of rain blocked roads, downed power lines and flooded homes throughout the U.S. Caribbean territory. Some 200,000 people also were without running water.
Police rescued one couple from a car stuck in rising floodwaters on a main highway in north-coast Rio Grande before the vehicle was swept away, authorities said.
"They got out through the window," emergency official Hector Rosa said.
Others were not so fortunate. In Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, airports were closed and businesses shuttered. Wednesday night, people mobbed a Ben and Jerry's ice cream parlor that was giving away ice cream that otherwise would spoil in the blacked-out Puerto Rican capital, informs Herald Tribune.
