Kingston, Jamaica ? Hurricane Dean pummeled Jamaica on Sunday with gusting winds and torrential rains that blew the roofs off homes, caused landslides and flooded roads.

The prime minister made a last-minute plea for residents to abandon their homes and head for shelter. But many residents ignored the call, while tourists holed up in resorts with hurricane-proof walls.

Dean, which had already killed eight people on its destructive march across the Caribbean, triggered evacuation calls from the Cayman Islands to Texas and forced the Space Shuttle to cut short its mission. Cruise ships changed course to avoid the storm, but some tourists in Jamaica could not get away before the island closed its airports late Saturday.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the first hurricane of the Atlantic season was projected to reach the most dangerous classification, a Category 5 storm, with sustained winds of 160 mph before plowing into Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula on Tuesday. The Mexican mainland or Texas could be hit later.

Forecasters had predicted Dean would hit the Cayman Islands head-on but on Sunday night revised that and said it would instead likely pass to the south. Still, the islands could get up to 12 inches of rain and tropical-storm strength winds today, said meteorologist Rebecca Waddington of the hurricane center.

Hurricane-force winds began lashing Jamaica on Sunday afternoon, Waddington said. But the island avoided a direct hit when Dean’s eye wound up passing just to the south Sunday night.

The government set up more than 1,000 shelters in converted schools, churches and the indoor national sports arena. Authorities urged people to take cover from the storm, which had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph and was expected to dump up to 20 inches of rain on the island.

But only 47 shelters were occupied as the storm began hitting, said Cecil Bailey of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.

As of 10 p.m. CDT Sunday, Dean was located about 135 miles west-southwest of Kingston and was traveling west at 20 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

In Mexico, tourists streamed out of resorts on Yucatan peninsula and formed long lines at the Cancun airport to try to fly home.

Twelve empty planes arrived Sunday to move travelers out, said airport spokesman Eduardo Rivadeneira. The state government set up 530 shelters with a capacity of 73,000 people.