Howling winds and pelting rains from Hurricane Sandy lashed Jamaica’s precarious shantytowns on Wednesday, stranding thousands of travelers and downing power lines.
It is the first hurricane to make a direct hit on Jamaica since Hurricane Gilbert 24 years ago, and it roared across the island on a course that was expected to take it over eastern Cuba.
As of Wednesday night, only one person — a man who was crushed by a boulder that rolled onto his clapboard house — had been killed in Jamaica, but storm’s flash floods and mudslides threatened the island of roughly 2.7 million people, which is shackled by debt and a crumbling infrastructure and many of whose sprawling shantytowns are built on steep embankments.
The international airport was closed, and cruise ships changed itineraries.
The police ordered a 48-hour curfew.
Earlier Wednesday, a woman in Haiti was swept away by a river.
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