Hurricane Iris aims toward Yucatan after killing three

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Hurricane Iris whirled past Jamaica on Sunday, uprooting trees but sparing the island the full fury of its 85 mph winds as it churned on toward Mexico and Belize.

The hurricane killed a family of three in the Dominican Republic on Saturday when the retaining wall on a hillside collapsed, crushing their house.

Iris had earlier threatened to make a direct hit in Jamaica, but instead passed to the south. After heavy rains, the sun emerged from the departing clouds.

"The full-fledged hurricane was not over Jamaica," said Lixion Avila, a forecaster at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The hurricane was forecast to pass south of the Cayman Islands and to strengthen as it moved over the western Caribbean toward the Yucatan Peninsula. People in the Yucatan could begin to feel the effects of the hurricane by Monday night, Avila said.

In southwestern Jamaica, about 10 people had to leave their homes due to flooding, said Barbara Carby, director of the Office of Disaster Preparedness. Winds of more than 70 mph were reported in the area, officials said.

In Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, a retention wall on a hill collapsed under the heavy rain Saturday, crushing a wooden house. The collapse killed a 27-year-old mother and her daughters, aged 3 and 8, and two other children were injured, said neighbor Ramon Vasquez.

Vasquez said he and some other men pulled the injured children to safety.

Thirty-five families were evacuated from low-lying Santo Domingo neighborhoods, officials said.