2007年VOA标准英语-Caribbean Hurricane on Path to Hit Mexico, Beli

Hurricane Dean is continuing its path west through the Caribbean, where it was expected to hit the Yucatan peninsula early Tuesday. In Miami, VOA's Brian Wagner reports the storm earlier passed near Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, where most communities escaped serious damage.

Two couples look at the ocean as Hurricane Dean approaches the area in Cancun, southeastern Mexico, 20 Aug 2007

Weather forecasters said early Monday the storm was a category four hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour and possible rainfall of up to 50 centimeters.

Michelle Minelli, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Miami, said the storm was expected to get stronger as it entered warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

"Some strengthening is expected today, and Dean is likely to become a category five hurricane prior to making landfall over the Yucatan peninsula very early Tuesday morning," she said.

Young boys use an umbrella to resist the wind while walking on a street in Kingston as Hurricane Dean passes over Jamaica, 19 Aug 2007

In south Florida, businessman Leo Benjamin said he managed to catch a late flight out of Jamaica before the storm, but three members of his missionary⁴ team did not. He said he spoke⁵ by telephone with them late Sunday, as the storm battered⁶ the home where they took refuge in Kingston.

"They were hearing trees snap. In the house they were in, the roof came off, all the shingles⁷ came off," he said. "They were spending their time mopping up water, and they watched the house next door lose a lot of their shingles also."

Benjamin said he spoke by telephone early Monday with residents of Jamaica's north coast, where people expressed relief that storm damage was relatively⁸ minor⁹.

Since last week, Hurricane Dean has been blamed for at least eight deaths in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the island of Dominica.

In the southern United States, officials in Texas and Louisiana have ordered emergency crews to monitor the storm for possible heavy rainfall and winds.

Officials with the U.S. space agency have ordered the shuttle Endeavour to return to earth Tuesday, one day ahead of schedule, because of weather concerns at Mission Control in Houston, Texas.