Dean was a classic Cape Verde cyclone that moved through the Caribbean as a major hurricane, passing very close to Jamaica and later making landfall on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula as a category 5 hurricane.  Dean, the first Atlantic hurricane since Andrew of 1992 to reach land at category 5 strength, was responsible for 32 deaths.

Published reports state that close to 2,000 people have been left homeless in Belize in the aftermath of Dean. The Belize Government’s final damage estimate was about US$100 million. There were however, no deaths in Belize.