(August 19, 2007)—A Jamaican woman who remembers the damage done by Hurricane Ivan three years ago says the storm itself is ''bad enough,” but what's hard to take is the aftermath, without lights or water.

People have been jamming supermarkets and hardware stores in the Jamaican capital, stocking up on water, flashlights and other supplies as Hurricane Dean approaches.

The outer bands of the hurricane were moving across Jamaica Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, voluntary evacuations are under way in South Texas as the region prepares for a possible brush next week with Hurricane Dean.

Gov. Rick Perry's office said city officials in Brownsville called for the voluntary evacuations of its more than 170,000 residents.

The Texas Youth Commission is evacuating nearly 270 inmates and staff members from its facility in Edinburg.

They're being moved to Brownwood, about 400 miles north.

President Bush has signed a pre-landfall emergency disaster declaration for Texas, which allows federal equipment and supplies to be moved in now.

The president’s declaration allows the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to coordinate disaster relief efforts and take emergency steps to protect life and property in Aransas, Bee, Bexar, Brazoria, Brooks, Calhoun, Cameron, Chambers, Dallas, Fort Bend, Galveston, Goliad, Harris, Hidalgo, Jackson, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Live Oak, Kleberg, Matagorda, McLennan, Nacogdoches, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, Smith, Tarrant, Travis, Victoria, Walker, Wharton, and Willacy Counties.

Perry has already activated more than 4,700 military personnel, and he says up to 10,000 could be mobilized if the hurricane strikes Texas.

Also on standby are nearly 50 utility and cargo military helicopters, 250 special boat crews, and more than 1,000 buses and drivers in San Antonio that are ready to transport special needs evacuees.

The government of Mexico has issued a hurricane watch from Chetumal to San Felipe on the Yucatan Peninsula, and Cuba has issued a tropical storm watch for the provinces of Pinar Del Rio and La Habana.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the southwestern peninsula of Haiti as well as for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

At 10 a.m. CDT Sunday, Dean’s center was about 130 miles east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and about 215 miles west-southwest of Port Au Prince Haiti.

Dean is moving west at about 18 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds of about 145 miles per hour with higher gusts, which makes the hurricane a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

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