SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AFP) — Hurricane Omar moved toward the open seas Thursday after pounding the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with lashing rain and 125 mile-per-hour winds as a major category three storm.
Although forecasters had warned of life-threatening flash floods and mudslides with rains of up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) over the Northern Leeward Islands and the Virgin Islands, there were no immediate reports of deaths.
Quickening its pace along a northeasterly track, Omar veered away from San Juan, Puerto Rico and headed out to the Atlantic, with its center about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Saint Martin at 0900 GMT, the US National Hurricane Center said.
In Puerto Rico, all commercial flights and public events were canceled and schools and shipping lanes were closed as the island made anxious preparations for the storm.
Rescue operators had set up 18 shelters in the island's east which was expected to receive the brunt of the rains and winds.
Omar sent the US and British Virgin Islands into lock-down, after the storm upgraded late Wednesday to a category three on the Saffir-Simpson scale of one to five which measures the potential damage and flooding a hurricane might cause upon landfall.
Particular areas of concern were the coastlines of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, where massive wave surges of four to six feet (1.2-1.8 meters) above normal were predicted.
An oil refinery on Saint Croix in the US Virgin Islands shut down most of its 500,000 barrels a day operations in advance of the storm, "except those necessary to maintain power supply in the complex," spokesman Alex Moorhead said.
The area around the refinery was closed by the US Coast Guard on Tuesday, and would remain shut until further notice, he said. The refinery is owned by Hess Corp. and Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela.
"Once Hurricane Omar has passed, we will conduct an inspection of our facilities as soon as it is safe to do so. If no damage is found that would impact safe operation of the refinery, the start-up of processing units will begin in sequential order," Moorhead said in a statement.
Hurricane warnings were lifted early Thursday in the US Virgin Islands and the outlying Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra, as well as the British Virgin Islands.
Hurricane warnings remained in effect for Saint Martin/Marteen, Saba, Saint Eustatius, Saint Barthelemy and Anguilla.
Saint Martin/Marteen, which is divided between France and the Netherlands, hosts the Caribbean's main air hub after Puerto Rico.
Tropical storm warnings extended to Monserrat, Antigua and Barbuda.
The busy 2008 hurricane season has included devastating Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which caused millions of dollars in damage in Haiti, Cuba and the United States.
Hurricanes and tropical storms have killed hundreds across the Caribbean and in Mexico, with Haiti -- the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere -- being the worst hit.
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