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Haitians in Grand Goave, 60kms from Port-au-Prince, cross a surging river after the local bridge was swept away by Hurricane Dennis.

HAVANA, July 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Hurricane Dennis has killed at least16 people and caused huge losses and damages to the Caribbean countries of Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica after it swept the region with powerful wind force on Thursday.

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    Cuban leader Fidel Castro said Friday in a televised speech that eight people died in Granma province and two more in Santiagoin his country.

    Hurricane Dennis gathered strength with extremely dangerous 240-km-per-hour winds before it touched down on central Cuba Friday afternoon.

    Santiago has been the most-hit province, where hundreds of houses were torn down, tourism infrastructure seriously damaged and over 85 percent of power supply cut off.

    In Cuba's capital city Havana, panic inhabitants have begun to line up at gas stations and bakeries to stock up with fuel and bread.

    All school classes in the country have been temporarily closed and over 600,000 individuals evacuated from eastern Cuba, including thousands of tourists.

    According to information from Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti,at least four people died Thursday in the Haitian city of Grand Goave and more remained missing after a bridge collapsed as a result of flood.

    Another was killed when a tree fell on his house in the southern city of Cayes, where seven houses and a church were completely covered in floods.

    Power supply and telephone services have been cut off in the country's south and southwest regions.

    The Haitian authorities said 3,000 people evacuated from the affected areas have been accommodated in 44 shelters and seven churches.

    In Port-au-Prince, police agents and soldiers patrol streets toprevent plundering, while the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH) has mobilized all its personnel for relief efforts.

    Hundreds of tourists in Haiti are waiting for resumption of theairport service, eager to leave the country, which has been made adangerous place to stay by Hurricane Dennis, the strongest Atlantic hurricane to form so early in the season since its first record in 1851.

    In Jamaica at least one person was reported missing after he was washed away in torrents while trying to cross a flooded street.

    Several Jamaican towns were flooded and at least 3,000 persons have been evacuated in shelters and hundreds more were cut off from outside connections, said official reports.

    According to a bulletin of the National Hurricane Center of theUnited States, based in Miami, Florida, Dennis would continue to move northwest, with a speed of 27 km per hour.

    The hurricane would lose some force after it passed Cuba, but it might regain force when coming in contact with the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Enditem