Strong Hurricane Hits Caribbean Islands

Hurricane Hugo, the most powerful storm to threaten the eastern Caribbean in a decade, lashed a chain of resort islands Saturday, forcing some residents to evacuate their homes.

Forecasters said Hugo could make a direct hit early today on Guadeloupe, Dominica or Antigua, where islanders were boarding up homes and businesses, stocking up on emergency supplies and securing small boats.

Authorities on the French island of Guadeloupe ordered the evacuation of some coastal areas as Hugo approached with 140-m.p.h. winds and a 10-foot wall of water, radio stations reported.

‘Extremely Dangerous Storm’

“We’re looking at an extremely dangerous storm with potential for destruction,” said Bob Sheets, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Hugo, the sixth hurricane of the 1989 Atlantic season, was bearing down on the Leeward Islands, a string of small, scenic islands that attract thousands of tourists from the United States and Europe.

More than 1 million people live scattered across a dozen islands, and structures vary widely from modern buildings on Guadeloupe to flimsy huts on Dominica.

Most international flights to the eastern Caribbean were suspended and emergency preparations were under way throughout the Caribbean island chain.

Forecasters said Hugo was already as powerful as Hurricane David, which devastated Dominica in 1979 and then hit the Dominican Republic and Florida. More than 1,000 people were killed along that storm’s path.

Last September, Hurricane Gilbert, the most powerful storm on record in the Western Hemisphere, formed after passing the populated eastern rim of the Caribbean. It cut a path of death and destruction from Jamaica to Mexico.

Hugo was plowing westward at 14 m.p.h., and its outer edges brought gusty winds, powerful ocean swells and heavy rain from Barbados north to Antigua, forecasters said.

Even if Hugo’s center doesn’t overrun the islands, it will be close enough to cause serious damage, forecasters said. Hurricane warnings were posted from St. Lucia 400 miles north to St. Martin and the British Virgin Islands, and a hurricane watch was in effect for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Islands in the path of the hurricane are expected to suffer severe coastal flooding from pounding waves and storm tides.