CNN Headline; says: 'Powerful Hurricane Dean swirled ever closer to the sun-kissed Caribbean islands Thursday night, prompting forecasters to extend tropical storm warnings to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Dean, a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph, was expected to pass near the islands of St. Lucia and Martinique early Friday, on its way across the Lesser Antilles into the Caribbean, according to the National Hurricane Center.St. Lucia and Martinique were under a hurricane watch, as were the islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe. People on the islands were being warned to finish preparations to protect their safety and property.
At 11 p.m. ET, Dean's center was about 160 miles (258 kilometers) south-southeast of Martinique and about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northeast of Barbados, moving west at about 25 mph. Forecasters said the storm could dump as much as 10 inches of rain in some mountainous areas, which could trigger flash floods and mudslides. Storm surge flooding as high as 4 feet was also forecast, with battering waves.
