Ross Sheil and Robert Lalah, Staff Reporters

Workmen put up storm shuttters outside the Victoria Mutual Building Society headquarters on Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston, yesterday afternoon. - Photo by Ross Sheil

Once again Jamaica was spared the full impact of a hurricane as 'Ernesto' - albeit downgraded to a tropical storm yesterday - shifted further away from the island but maintained a path which, after its overnight dousing of south-western Haiti, would today take it across Cuba and towards Florida.

On Friday it appeared that Ernesto, the season's fifth named tropical storm, would have romped diagonally across Jamaica from the south-west to the north-east. And by late Friday, the forecast was that it would at least side-swipe the north-eastern shore.

North-east drift

But while forecasters maintained a storm warning and hurricane watch for the island, Ernesto's Saturday night drift north-east seemed set to save Jamaica from the worst effects of the storm. And by yesterday afternoon, with the weather system yet to affect Jamaica, the mood on the streets of the Corporate Area was anti-climactic, with some vendors in Parade, downtown Kingston, still out but with few customers.

Uptown, as workers put up storm shutters on the Victoria Mutual Building Society headquarters behind her, one elderly woman sat alone at the bus stop on a relatively empty Knutsford Boulevard that, were it not for the weather, would have been the scene of a go-kart race.

"They're wasting their time, it's not worth it, 'cause God won't allow hurricane to hit Jamaica," she claimed in a popular explanation of past hurricanes. Last year, hurricanes Dennis and Emily passed the north coast while, in 2004, 'Ivan' 'wobbled' away, though causing significant damage to infrastructure and the agricultural sector.

Such faith notwithstanding, meteorological officials warned that the storm still posed a threat.

A crawl

At four o'clock yesterday, Ernesto, having slowed to a crawl of eight miles an hour, was near the south-eastern tip of Haiti, or about 150 miles west-south-west of the country's capital of Port-au-Prince and about 210 kilometres (130 miles) east of Morant Point, Jamaica. This location also placed the storm 160 miles south-south-east of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Ernesto was travelling north-west, a path it was expected to maintain for at least 24 hours.

It was already dumping rain on flood-prone Haiti at a hurricane warning was in force for the country's south-western peninsula. A storm warning was also in effect for Jamaica, to the east of which Ernesto's centre was expected to pass last night on its north-westerly trek.

"Periods of heavy rainfall are possible for sections of mainly northern an eastern parishes ... as the system moves closer to Jamaica," the local Met office warned. "Flash flooding, landslides and above-normal tide levels are likely."

Ronald Jackson, acting director general at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), said shelters had been opened in the four parishes of Hanover, Portland, St. Mary, and Westmoreland. He added however that no one had as yet sought shelter.

However, Acting Secretary/Manager for the Manchester Parish Council, Dave Harris, said there was a concern for persons living in flood prone areas to prepare to evacuate to higher ground in the event of flooding.

"We have been working with our planning department to establish some of the possible scenarios that could occur with a view to the best possible resolution," Mr. Harris said. "In cases of roads being flooded, we have a number of alternative routes that we will announce should the situation warrant."