Hurricane Emily roared past Jamaica's southern coast on Saturday, hammering the Caribbean island with torrential rains and pounding surf as Mexico began evacuations in anticipation of the storm's 155 mph winds. Emily's power was on the verge of making it a rare Category 5 storm on the five-step scale of hurricane intensity, one capable of destroying buildings, according to Reuters. Although Emily's raging core and worst winds stayed in the Caribbean Sea more than 100 miles (160 km) off Jamaica's southern coast, the storm was large enough and strong enough to trigger flooding and mudslides on the island, home to about 2.6 million people. At 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), the center of Emily was about 135 miles (217 km) southwest of Kingston and was moving to the west-northwest at about 18 mph (29 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Forecasters said Emily would skirt the Cayman Islands, a tiny British colony, before pushing across the Caribbean and striking Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Sunday. In Jamaica, thousands of people had moved from their homes in flood-prone areas to schools and churches on Friday as hundreds of soldiers and police took to the streets to deter looters. --More 2225 Local Time 1925 GMT
