Storm watch - Chantal regroups in Carib JAMAICA WAS placed on hurricane alert yesterday as Tropical Storm Chantal regrouped in the southern Caribbean after losing strength as it crossed the tiny islands of the Lesser Antilles. Chantal, a weak tropical storm with sustained winds of just 40 mph (64 kph), built strength over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea on a track that could take it toward Jamaica by Saturday night or Sunday morning. The storm, born on Thursday in the Atlantic Ocean, fizzled into a disorganised mass of thunderstorms as it passed near Barbados and St. Vincent late on Thursday, but regained tropical storm force with 39 mph (63 kph) winds on Friday afternoon. At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), Chantal's centre was about 325 miles (523 km) south-southeast of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, at latitude 14.3 north, longitude 67.4 west, the US National Hurricane Center said. Jamaica's National Meteorological Service put Chantal at about 912 kilometres east-southeast of Jamaica's south coast, near to Pedro Banks at 5:00 p.m. yesterday . It was moving west at about 23 mph (37 kph) and was expected to stay on that track for the next day or two, taking it south of Jamaica late on Saturday or early on Sunday, forecasters said. The Tropical Storm, which picked up force between Thursday and yesterday, was expected to further strengthen overnight into today and pass between 140 and 200 kilometres south of Jamaica sometime between Saturday and Sunday. The Met office warned that Chantal could become a hurricane by the time it reaches west of Jamaica as tropical storm force winds now extend outward up to 185 kilometres to the north and east of the storm's centre. This prompted the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emer-gency Management (ODPEM) yesterday to urge Jamaicans living or doing business in low lying, flood prone and coastal areas to evacuate early if Jamaica is battered by strong winds and heavy rainfall, including thunderstorms, resulting from the tropical storm. Both ODPEM and the Met Service said storm surges, a gradual rise in water levels along a shoreline, are produced by low pressure and onshore hurricane winds and that if necessary, people who live along the southern coastal areas in particular, fishermen who make a living there and operators of small craft, should return to port, secure their vessels and leave the area early before escape routes become impassable. "It's better for people to evacuate early because we don't have the capability of rescuing large numbers of persons. Rescuing is usually with the Jamaica Fire Brigade but they don't have a large number of units and if the roads become impassable, you can't talk about vehicles going there. You will have to start looking for boats," said Dr. Barbara Carby, director general of the ODPEM. "It's better for people to just move early instead of putting themselves at risk." The ODPEM's National Response Teams and parish disaster committees have been put on alert since Thursday and that the national response centre was open. The ODPEM was also issuing releases to the public, Dr. Carby said. Meanwhile, a number of large supermarket chains reported an increase in customers following the warning. Hi Lo at Cross Roads told The Gleaner that the supermarket had seen about a 20 per cent swell in addition to its usual Friday night crowd and sold out goods such as candles to customers coming in to stock up on dried and tin goods such as crackers, corned beef and sardines, batteries, and other supplies. Supermarkets at Liguanea and Duhaney Park in Kingston; Super Plus Food Stores in Christiana, Manchester and Montego Bay, gave similar responses.
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