USA: Preparations are underway in Texas for Hurricane Dean
- 00:01:13
- ITN Source
USA: Preparations are underway in Texas for Hurricane Dean
The Texas National Guard is gathering in southern Texas to help residents prepare for Hurricane Dean, the Atlantic's first major storm and "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane. While residents in some parts of central Texas clean up after flooding from last week's Tropical Storm Erin, preparations are underway in the southern part of Texas for Hurricane Dean. Workers have been preparing thousands of sandbags in case of flooding, and Texas Governor Rick Perry mobilized the state's National Guard, calling in five thousand troops to prepare for the storm. Their mission is to both help people evacuate and clean up after the hurricane. Hurricane Dean buffeted Jamaica's southern coast, flooding the capital and littering it with broken trees and roofs after killing nine people as it tore through the Caribbean on Monday (August 20) towards Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Hurricane warnings were in effect for the coast of Belize and the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, all the way to the popular tourist destination of Cancun. Risk modeling company EQECAT Inc. estimated insured losses from Dean's rampage through the Caribbean islands at $1.5 billion to $3 billion, most of it in Jamaica. Dean was an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane, the second-highest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it could strengthen to a potentially catastrophic Category 5 over the next 24 hours. Category 5 hurricanes are rare but in 2005 there were four, including Katrina, reinforcing research that suggests global warming may increase the strength of tropical cyclones. Five-day forecasts showed the possibility of Dean hitting the Texas coast by Wednesday (August 22).
ITN Source | August 20, 2007
