Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

As The Turks and Caiços Islands braced for a Category Four hurricane, Jamaicans living there were expected to be airlifted here last night by Air Jamaica and Air Turks and Caicos.

Jamaicans were urged to get on the next flight out before the dangerous Hurricane Ike makes landfall there late Saturday, Lorna Lindo, a Jamaican teacher living there told The Gleaner.

Late news

Lindo said she learnt of the evacuation late, and was not certain how she was going to leave the extremely flat islands. Of the 33,000 people residing in The Turks and Caiços, some 4,000 are Jamaicans. Many of those Jamai-cans are educators and tourism workers.

At 8 p.m. yesterday, the flight, tagged a 'Mercy Flight' by sources at the airline, said an A320 was scheduled to depart the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay to pick up at least 150 passengers, complemented by Air Turks and Caicos which had the capacity to fly more than 30 people.

Yesterday Hurricane Ike continued to rapidly gain strength in the central Atlantic Basin. As of 5 p.m. yesterday, Ike was located 505 miles north-northeast of the Leeward Islands. Maximum sustained winds near the centre were down a bit to 135 mph, but it remained a powerful Category Four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com