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Dean strengthens to Category 4 hurricane, heads to Gulf of Mexico

Dean strengthened yet again Friday, becoming a Category 4 hurricane with dangerous 135-mph winds as it pounded Caribbean islands and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico.It's on track to brush southern Hispaniola on Saturday and bear down on Jamaica on Sunday, forecasters said.
By Monday morning, as Dean nears the Yucatan, its maximum sustained winds are forecast to reach 150 mph, CNN Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider reported.That's just under the 155-mph threshold that would make it a Category 5, the most intense category on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity used by meteorologists.It was too soon to tell whether Dean would strike Texas, but Gov. Rick Perry declared the storm an imminent threat to the state.He's begun activating personnel and resources to prepare for a possible hit, including 250 state Parks and Wildlife Department crews with boats. Meanwhile, the state Department of Transportation began planning for possible evacuations.At 8 p.m. ET Friday, Dean's center was about 255 miles south-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, moving west at about 19 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.Earlier, Dean pounded the islands of Dominica, St. Lucia and Martinique. The hurricane has claimed at least three lives so far, including a 7-year-old boy and his mother on Dominica who were crushed in their home when rains from the storm caused a landslide, The Associated Press reported.Another storm system, remnants of Tropical Storm Erin,triggered widespread flooding in Texas that contributed to at least seven deaths, according to local news reports.Dean crossed the 111-mph Category 3 threshold Friday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.Dangerous winds ripped a corrugated metal roof off a pediatric ward at Victoria Hospital in St. Lucia's capital, Castries, AP reported.No injuries were reported, AP said, and patients had been evacuated.Flooding and wind-swept debris have turned St. Lucia into "a total mess,"state radio reported,according to AP.Storm surges shoved sea-wall boulders onto roads, AP reported, and a boat was seen sitting on a road after forces of nature carried it from the sea.Dean is forecast to dump up to 2 inches of rain on Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with isolated amounts of up to 5 inches. Forecasters posted tropical storm warnings for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico the islands of Montserrat, Antigua, Nevis, St. Kitts, Barbuda, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.A tropical storm warning was also issued Friday morning for the south coast of the island of Hispaniola, from from Cabo Engano, Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions, including winds of at least 39 mph, are expected within 24 hours.A hurricane watch was issued from Cabo Beata, Dominican Republic, to Port-au-Prince.Josephine Marcelus of Morne Rouge, Martinique, described the storm to The AP as it slammed the island."We don't have a roof...everything is exposed.We tried to save what we could,"she said."We sealed ourselves in one room, praying that the hurricane stops blowing over Martinique."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.
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