The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Disaster Management on Thursday announced a partial evacuation of several communities in the Portmore area of St. Catherine, two communities in Eastern Kingston-Port Royal and Harbour View and several low-lying coastal communities across the island.

Forecasters feared Ivan could be the worst natural catastrophe to hit the island in the past 50 years.

Jamaica has issued a hurricane warning for the densely populated island of 2.7 million, which was hit hard by Hurricane Charlie in 1959 and Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.

At 0300 GMT Friday the eye of the storm, which was downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane, was about 290 miles (465 kilometers) southeast of Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Ivan has killed as many as 29 in Grenada, Tobago and Venezuela.

Over 1,000 shelters were identified across Jamaica including churches and school buildings, local media said, and persons in areas to be evacuated were asked to head for the shelters.

The government asked owners of private vehicles to use them to lessen the burden on public transportation.

Shelters were opened at 5:00 pm on Thursday.

Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson warned would-be looters not to cash in on the storm.

"I will not hesitate to invoke emergency powers should the situation so require and I have already got before me the precedence, which was used in 1988," following the Hurricane Gilbert.

Meanwhile Minister of National Security Peter Phillips told reporters that the army and police would be deployed to ensure order.

Patterson warned Jamaicans to take the situation seriously and pointed to damage done by Ivan in Grenada earlier this week.

Meanwhile hundreds of visitors left Jamaica island on Thursday, as Air Jamaica and US carriers operated extra flights for foreigners who had flocked to airports.

The airport serving Kingston was closed late Thursday and was tentatively set to be re-opened at noon on Saturday.

The deadly storm, which devastated Grenada, was moving toward the west-northwest near 21 kilometers (13 miles) per hour, a track that was expected to continue for the next 24 hours, the center said. On this track the hurricane will be nearing Jamaica on Friday, it added.

"Some fluctuations in intensity are expected during the next 24 hours," it also added.

Storm surge flooding of 0.9 to 1.5 meters (three to five feet) above normal tide levels, along with large and dangerous battering waves, could be expected near the center of Ivan in the hurricane warning area, the US center noted.

Rainfall amounts of 15-25 centimeters (six to ten inches), possibly causing life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, can also be expected, it added.

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