Jamaica in state of emergency

A state of emergency has been declared in Jamaica as the island is battered by Hurricane Dean.Up to 5,000 British tourists are stranded on the island and have been urged to seek refuge at emergency shelters in churches and schools.Hurricane Dean has already left a trail of death and destruction across much of the Caribbean and killed at least three people.The Jamaican government has imposed a curfew, electricity supplies have been switched off and troops are on patrol in the capital Kingston to prevent looting.Residents of the Carribean island have hoarded emergency supplies and many tourists sought to flee the island before the category four tropical storm arrived.Dean is the first hurricane of what is expected to be an above-average 2007 Atlantic storm season and also threatens to pound the Cayman Islands and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.At least one more person died on Saturday and millions went on alert in some of the most populous areas of the Caribbean, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.Nasa is preparing to bring space shuttle Endeavour, which has been on a mission to the International Space Station, back to Earth a day early just in case Mission Control in Houston has to close because of the storm.Dean trampled Martinique, St. Lucia and Dominica on Friday, triggering landslides, lifting roofs off houses, knocking out power and destroying banana and sugar cane plantations.Category five hurricanes are rare. Until the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, records showed only two years - 1960 and 1961 - with more than one Category 5 storm.But in 2005, four hurricanes reached that strength - Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma - triggering debate about the impact of global warming on tropical cyclones.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | August 20, 2007

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