Hurricane Melissa strengthened to Category 5 strength on Monday as it approached Jamaica, with up to 76 inches of rain and life-threatening impacts.
Melissa is forecast to make landfall on the island on Tuesday, and land on Cuba and the Bahamas on Wednesday.
Melissa was centered 205 kilometers southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, and 505 kilometers southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The storm had maximum winds of 260 kilometers per 260 kilometers in two hours and was moving west at six kilometers, the center said.
Hurricane Melissa was strengthened to a major storm category 4, where it is possible to strengthen the storm 5 Sunday night, opened heavy rain in the northern Caribbean, including Haiti and Jamaican Center (NHC).
Category 5 is the highest on the saffir-simpson scale, with sustained winds exceeding 250 km/h. Melissa is the strongest hurricane in recent history to directly hit the small Caribbean nation.
Some parts of eastern Jamaica could get a meter of rain, while Western Haiti could get 40 centimeters, according to the hurricane center.
“Catastrophic flash floods and multiple varvices are possible,” it warned.
“I want to urge Jamaicans to take this seriously,” said Desmond McKenzie, Vice Chairman of the Jamaica Disaster Management Council. “Don’t gamble with Melissa. It’s not a safe bet.”
Death in Haiti, Dominican Republic
The slow-moving storm has killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
After Jamaica, the storm is expected to make another landfall later Tuesday in eastern Cuba. A typhoon warning was in effect for Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Holguin provinces, while a tropical storm warning was in effect for las tunas. Up to 51 inches of rain was forecast for parts of Cuba, along with a major storm surge on the coast.
Melissa could be Jamaica’s strongest hurricane in decades, said Evan Thompson, Executive Director of Jamaica’s Meteorological Service. He warned that cleanup and damage recovery could be significantly delayed due to expected land subsidence, flooding and blocked roads.
In addition to the rain, Melissa is likely to blossom into a life-threatening storm in Jamaica on the south coast, reaching four meters above the level above the ground, near the east of Melissa makes a place to live, said the US agency.
“Don’t make stupid decisions,” warned Daryl Vazi, Jamaica’s minister of transport. “We’re in for a very rough time in the next few days.”
The storm has already dumped heavy rain in the Dominican Republic, where schools and government offices were forced to close on Monday in four of the nine provinces still under a red alert.
Melissa damaged more than 750 homes across the country, displacing more than 3,760 people. The floods also cut off access to 48 communities, officials said.
In neighboring Haiti, the storm destroyed crops in three regions, including 15 hectares of corn at a time when at least the people of this country, who have problems with hunger, with 1.9 million are facing emergency levels of hunger.
“Floods prevent access to farms and markets, risking the harvest and the winter agricultural season,” said the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Melissa is expected to continue dumping heavy rain over Southern Haiti and the Southern Dominican Republic in the coming days.
