Hurricane Georges Downgraded
Hurricane Georges weakened slightly on Sunday evening, and was downgraded to a category 3 storm as it spun near the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Georges began lashing the easternmost islands of the Caribbean on Sunday, forcing families to huddle in basements and businesses to pile sandbags in front of their entrances.
Winds were gusting to 50 mph in Antigua by late afternoon, with forecasters predicting the hurricane's full 130-mph fury by later Sunday evening.
At 5 pm EDT, the eye of the extremely dangerous hurricane was located about 325 miles east-southeast of St. Croix and 340 miles east-southeast of St. Thomas. Georges was moving toward the west at near 16 mph, and a west to west-northwest motion is expected to continue through Sunday evening.
The eye of Georges was expected to pass over the small, eastern Caribbean islands late Sunday before moving on to the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The center announced a hurricane watch for the Dominican Republic on Sunday evening. Earlier, it warned that storm-surge flooding of 5 feet to 10 feet above normal tide levels and 5 inches to 8 inches of rain should be expected in islands within an 85-mile radius of the eye of the hurricane.
Government officials throughout the region warned that Georges could cause the worst damage in decades.
Residents of Guadeloupe and Dominica, fearing the hurricane would peel off roofs from homes, moved beds into their basements or headed to hurricane shelters in schools. Church congregations on many islands cut short Sunday services to convert their sanctuaries into shelters.
"We expect a full house tonight," said Priscilla Nicholas, a volunteer at the Seventh Day Adventist church in Cedar Grove, Antigua.
On Antigua, workers took down satellite dishes, while others removed aluminum light poles from the parking lot a shopping center. Rain began at noon and was growing more intense by the hour.
Emergency management officials moved through the shelters, handing out kits of flashlights, mosquito coils, water and toilet paper.
Officials in Dominica shut off water service at noon, saying silt caused by the heavy rains was overloading treatment plants. Emergency workers compared the storm to 1979's Hurricane David, which devastated banana farms the island's biggest employers.
In Guadeloupe, raging seas swept into streets in the northern towns of Anse-Bertrand and Campeche.
In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, where 3.8 million residents waited in the path of the storm, many people rushed to stores for plywood, water and canned food.
"Hurricanes come every year here, but this one looks like it's serious," said Jose Firpi as he boarded up windows in his San Juan home.
Gov. Pedro Rossello activated the island's national guard and ordered officials to begin preparing more than 300 sheltrs. American Airlines the island's chief lifeline to the U.S. mainland announced it was canceling all flights into Puerto Rico on Monday.
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency sent early response teams to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico before the storm.