Hurricane Emily menaces Jamaica

Hurricane Emily, a Category 4 storm packing sustained winds of 145 mph, began to sweep past south Jamaica early Saturday, where residents are being told to prepare for the worst.  Emily was expected to pass south of Jamaica late Saturday morning and into the afternoon before moving west toward the Cayman Islands late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

As of 8 a.m. ET, the storm was about 140 miles south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 395 miles southeast of Grand Cayman, moving west-northwest at about 18 mph.

A deluge of up to 8 inches of rain was forecast for Jamaica and the Caymans, with up to 15 inches in the mountains, which forecasters warned could trigger flash floods and mudslides.

Forecasters said the storm's strength could fluctuate Saturday, as it did Friday.

At Category 4, Emily is capable of causing extensive structural damage and coastal flooding with storm surges of up to 18 feet over normal tide.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, meaning hurricane conditions -- including sustained winds in excess of 73 mph -- are expected within the next 24 hours.

Hurricane-force winds are possible later Saturday in gusts along the Jamaican coast, with possible sustained hurricane-force winds at higher elevations, the National Hurricane Center said.

In those locations, "preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," forecasters said.

Tropical storm warnings were in place for the southern coast of Haiti -- where the storm system was expected to dump 3 to 6 inches of rain -- but a similar warning for the southern coast of the Dominican Republic was canceled early Saturday.

The center's latest five-day projection of Emily's path shows the storm making a brief landfall on the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula early Monday, then heading into the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm's projected path has it on a trajectory to hit the Gulf Coast just south of the U.S.-Mexico border early Wednesday. However, the potential landfall path stretches hundreds of miles from Matagorda Bay in Texas south to near Veracruz, Mexico.

Emily has been blamed for one death in Grenada, which took a near-direct hit from the storm early Thursday.

The hurricane is the latest storm in what has so far been an active 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, with five tropical systems developing in the first six weeks.

All five systems have reached at least tropical storm strength, two became Category 4 hurricanes, and Dennis -- which packed 150 mph winds at one point -- was the earliest Category 4 hurricane ever recorded in the Caribbean basin.

The storm caused extensive damage in Cuba and the northern U.S. Gulf Coast, killing more than three dozen people.