Jamaica cleans up with a 'national day of thanksgiving'

Jamaica began the Dean aftermath cleanup on Monday - a day after experiencing one of the worst hurricanes in Caribbean history.

Dean left massive amounts of destruction around the island but only 3 people were reported dead as of Monday evening.  

But Jamaica was spared the bulk of the storm, and has emerged damaged but not destroyed.  Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller declared a "National Day of Thanksgiving".

Of importance to Jamaican tourists, the storm passed south of Jamaica which means that the bulk of Jamaica's tourist properties were spared serious damage.  Most of the tourist properties are along the northern coast, facing Cuba and thus out of the storm's fury.

CTN will be checking in on the big resorts for damage assessments and hope to have this news, soon.

Meanwhile, NOAA has released the latest info about hurricane Dean.  Dean is now a Category 5 hurricane and hovering over the Mexican Yucatan and out of the Caribbean.  It's currently battering Mexican Caribbean resort areas, although it has passed well south of the majority of Yucatan resort areas - like Cancun. 

The storm will continue into Mexico by late Wednesday.