the Unknown Japan screening series. He’s served as a TLA Video Manager, Philadelphia Film Society Managing Director, and Adjunct Professor in Cinema Studies at Drexel University. He is shy and modest. Email Eric.Hurricane Dean has begun lashing Belize and Mexico's Caribbean coast with high winds and driving rain. In Miami, VOA's Brian Wagner reports weather forecasters say residents should prepare for a very powerful storm.

U.S. forecasters said hurricane Dean had strengthened into a category five storm with sustained winds of about 257 kilometers per hour and possible rainfall of up to 50 centimeters. They said the hurricane was capable of ripping out trees and signposts, and causing serious damages to buildings in its path.

Scores of tourists fled the Mexican resort town of Cancun and other nearby areas ahead of the approaching storm. Mexico's state oil company also evacuated workers from oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hugh Cobb, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Miami, said the hurricane was