Hurricane Dean buffeted Jamaica's southern coast, flooding the capital and littering it with broken trees and roofs after killing nine people earlier on its run through the Caribbean.
Dean was an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane, the second-highest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It could gain even more strength on Monday to become a potentially catastrophic Category 5 as it passes south of the Cayman Islands and heads for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller declared a month-long state of emergency and called a cabinet meeting to discuss the potential impact on August 27 general elections.
The power company switched off electricity as the wind began to howl and pounding waves battered the southern coast.
Police said they shot and wounded two men caught trying to break into a business in the capital during the storm.
Torrents of rain pelted the capital Kingston and streets were blocked by toppled trees, utility poles and broken roofs. A man was missing after falling trees tore into his house.
The eye of the storm stayed just south of Jamaica but the intense wall of winds around the calm center pummeled the island.
"They're still getting pretty beaten up," hurricane center forecaster Dave Roberts said. "I know they were massively flooded from the reports that we had."
Mudslides were reported in several parts of the mountainous country of 3 million people.
Local media reported 17 fishermen and women had been stranded ahead of the storm on the Pedro Cays, a small island chain south of Kingston, directly in the path of the hurricane.
The government urged residents to go to shelters. But many people, including those in one low-lying seaport town close to Kingston, refused to flee.
