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[NEW YORK, 19 August 2007] – UNICEF and other UN and humanitarian agencies were poised to help the authorities respond to the emergency needs of children and families in Jamaica as Hurricane Dean, a dangerous Category 4 storm, bore down on the Caribbean island nation today. In a live update filed by cell phone via the Uniwiki reporting system, a new emergency communications initiative, UNICEF Representative in Jamaica Bertrand Bainvel said that between 32,000 and 150,000 people in 230 vulnerable communities could be affected by the potentially catastrophic hurricane. UNICEF estimates that children comprise 40 per cent of the population at risk in Jamaica. Other eastern Caribbean nations are being affected by the storm as well. As Hurricane Dean rapidly approached landfall, the Jamaican Government urged people to flee low-lying and landslide-prone areas, put troops and police on alert and transported residents to evacuation centres, according to a Reuters report. Meanwhile, lines formed at gas stations and supermarkets were packed with shoppers buying emergency provisions. Coordinated UN response In the early stages of a crisis that will almost certainly require a major international relief effort, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is overseeing the joint response in Jamaica and other hurricane-threatened areas. As part of that effort, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization have pre-positioned medical equipment, water-purification tablets, food stocks and relief staff in Haiti for transport to Jamaica or elsewhere in the region, as needed. "UNICEF is going to continue monitoring closely the situation, along with the UN family," said Mr. Bainvel, "and is prepared to respond." Further information