MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (AFP)- Deadly Hurricane Ivan was headed for the Cayman Islands and western Cuba after killing 14 in Jamaica, bringing the storm`s total death toll to 41.
Ivan was upgraded to a rare maximum-strength category five storm as its maximum sustained wind speeds hit 270 kilometers (165 miles) per hour, and forecasters warned that it could strengthen yet further.
"Ivan is likely to have a devastating impact over portions of the Cayman Islands and western Cuba," the US National Hurricane Center said late Saturday.
A US Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft flying into the eye of the hurricane measured a minimum central pressure of 26.93 inches (912 MB), "the sixth lowest central pressure on record for a hurricane in the Atlantic Basin," said the Miami-based center.
"This makes Ivan an extremely dangerous hurricane."
Ivan has now officially killed a total of 41 people in Grenada, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Tobago and Jamaica, which was lashed by Ivan overnight Friday to Saturday.
Twenty-three-foot (seven-meter) waves slammed the coastline of this mountainous, verdant Caribbean island nation of 2.7 million, where a state of emergency has been in effect since Friday.
Forecasters reported coastal storm surge flooding of 20 to 25 feet (six to 7.6 meters) above normal tide levels, along with large and dangerous battering waves.
The Jamaican casualties included 80-year-old Jane Smith, who had refused to leave her home in Kingston`s Stony Hill district. She was found clutching a Bible and a packet of biscuits, dead of an apparent heart attack, police said.
Three members of one family were found in their home in the rural community of St. Andrew, cause of death unspecified.
Eight more perished in another small rural community, Portland Cottage, at the southernmost tip of the island, apparently drowned in a storm surge, rescue workers said.
A woman who gave birth during the height of the storm late Friday died of complications en route to a hospital.
Another woman was fatally injured by a falling tree as she tried to fix her roof in the Vineyard Town area of Kingston.
Police said they shot dead at least one looter, and two officers were wounded in shootouts with other looters.
Looting was a growing problem in Jamaica`s cities. Police said bands of armed men roamed the streets of Kingston and Montego Bay, ransacking shops and businesses, exchanging gunfire with police, confronting residents who defended their possessions with machetes.
Rain-swollen rivers swept over their banks, invading city streets with raging, waist-high muddy water that swept away homes, people, vehicles, trees and power poles.
Virtually the entire island was without electricity. Only those with emergency generators had power.
The Jamaica Public Service Company raced to repair downed lines and damaged transformers and generators, but said power could be out for at least another two days.
Panic buying and mass evacuations meanwhile escalated in parts of Cuba, where the storm was expected to hit sometime Sunday, and south Florida.
Cuban authorities rushed Saturday to evacuate some two million people from their homes, shut down the railroad and ports and prepare bomb shelters as refuges from Hurricane Ivan, which was expected to lash the Caribbean`s most populous island nation as soon as Sunday.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Cuba from the western province of Pinar del Rio to Ciego de Avila, including the Isle of Youth.
That includes the densely populated Havana area of more than two million people occupying largely dilapidated housing. Cuba, which is larger than Portugal, has a population of 11 million.
All domestic and international flights were canceled as of 0400 GMT Sunday, cutting off Cuba from the rest of the world until Tuesday, when service will resume, if possible.
Ivan is expected to roar ashore from the south and cross Cuba starting in the early hours of Monday, but its effects were expected to disturb uneasy Cubans by late Sunday.
Cuba`s preparations come nearly one month after Hurricane Charley left five people dead there and an estimated one billion dollars in damage.
The tiny spice island of Grenada, with a population of 100,000, had earlier suffered catastrophic damage in the storm on Friday.
Up to 90 percent of buildings on the island were damaged, crops were destroyed and tourist resorts were in ruins, said Prime Minister Keith Mitchell.
Some 60,000 residents of Grenada were left homeless, with 5,000 to 8,000 people staying in 47 emergency shelters, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Relief Agency said.