Hurricane Tomas Grows in Caribbean

Hurricane Tomas headed deeper into the Caribbean early Sunday after storming over a cluster of islands at the sea's eastern entrance, tearing off roofs, damaging houses and downing power lines.

The storm was moving over open water on a path that could take it near Jamaica later in the week.

On Saturday, Tomas battered Barbados with high winds and torrential rain, ripping off roofs, downing power lines and uprooting trees.

After Barbados, which experienced high winds until around noon yesterday, it then lashed St Lucia and St Vincent.

Antigua-based airline LIAT, meanwhile, suspended services to and from those two islands, as well as Canouan, Dominica, Grenada, and Martinique, a result of the hurricane.

The company said it was awaiting word from the authorities in Barbados about the reopening of the Grantley Adams International Airport to determine when it could resume service to that destination.

Right now, Tomas is classified as a cateory 2 hurricane and should strengthen to a category 3 sometime on Sunday.