Hurricane Emily Strengthens

Category 3 Storm Pounds Grenada, Threatens Aruba, Venezuela

(AP)  Hurricane Emily grew even more powerful Thursday after slamming into Grenada, tearing up crops, flooding streets and striking at homes still under repair from last year's storms. At least one man was killed.

The storm strengthened to a dangerous Category 3 as it cleared the Windward Islands, unleashing heavy surf and rains along Venezuela's Caribbean coast.

The storm was packing sustained winds near 115 mph and moving west-northwest at around 21 mph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted the second major hurricane of the Atlantic season would get even stronger.

Venezuelan authorities temporarily ordered some oil tankers to stay in port in the key oil refining zone of Puerto la Cruz, port captain Jose Jimenez Quintero said.

Emily struck hard in Grenada, especially in the two northern parishes, St. Patrick's and St. Andrew's, and the outlying islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, authorities said. The damage comes as the island nation is still recovering from last year's devastating Hurricane Ivan.

“Serious damage has been inflicted on many parts of the island,” said Rawle Titus, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.

A man in his 40s was killed when a landslide crushed his home in St. Andrew's, said Allen McGuire, Grenada's consul general in New York City.

In the capital, St. George's, winds blew out windows in a new hospital built with help from the Cuban government, causing flooding, said Barry Colleymore, a spokesman for Prime Minister Keith Mitchell. Hospital employees had mistakenly reported that the roof of the operating room had been blown off, Colleymore said.

On Carriacou, the storm damaged the roof of the only hospital, forcing the evacuation of patients, officials said.