Hurricane Melissa strengthened until it reached category 4 hurricanewith the possibility of intensifying into a Category 5 storm on Sunday night, unleashing torrential rains and threatening to cause catastrophic flooding in the northern Caribbean, including Haiti and Jamaicasaid the US National Hurricane Center.
The weather agency added that Melissa is likely to reach Jamaica’s southern coast as a major hurricane late Monday or Tuesday morning, and urged people on the island to seek shelter immediately.
“I urge Jamaicans to take this climate threat seriously,” said Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness. “Take all measures to protect yourself.”
Melissa was centered about 110 miles (180 kilometers) south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 280 miles (445 kilometers) south-southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba, on Sunday morning. It had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 kph) and was moving west at three mph (5 kph), the hurricane center said.
Melissa was expected to drop torrential rains of up to 30 inches (760 millimeters) in Jamaica and southern Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), according to the hurricane center. Some areas may receive up to 40 inches (1,010 millimeters) of rain.
He also warned that extensive damage to infrastructure, power and communications outages and the isolation of communities were to be expected in Jamaica.
Melissa should be near or over Cuba by Tuesday night, where it could bring up to 300 millimeters (12 inches) of rain, before moving toward the Bahamas later Wednesday.
The Cuban government issued a hurricane warning on Saturday afternoon for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Holguín.
Airports closed and shelters activated
The erratic, slow-moving storm has killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
“Unfortunately for places along the projected path of this storm, it’s getting more dire,” Jamie Rhome, the center’s deputy director, said earlier Saturday. He said the storm will continue to move slowly for up to four days.
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Jamaica’s government said Montego Bay’s main airport, Sangster International Airport, will close at noon local time on Sunday as the island’s national emergency agency activated its level three emergency protocol ahead of Melissa.
The island’s largest airport, Norman Manley International Airport in the capital Kingston, closed at 9 p.m. local time on Saturday.
“With the slow movement of this system, it does not allow for recovery. It will sit there, pouring water while barely moving and that is a major challenge that we have to be aware of,” warned Evan Thompson, senior director of the Jamaica Meteorological Service.
“There is no place that will escape the wrath of this hurricane,” said Richard Thompson, acting director general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.
He said all members of the National Response Team are now on high alert.
In Jamaica, more than 650 shelters were activated. Officials said warehouses across the island were well stocked and thousands of food packages were pre-positioned for quick distribution if needed.
Communities isolated by rising waters
Haitian authorities said three people had died as a result of the hurricane and five others were injured due to the collapse of a wall. There were also reports of rising river levels, flooding and the destruction of a bridge due to river banks breaking in Sainte-Suzanne in the northeast. Any update on this? Not yet
Many residents are still reluctant to leave their homes, Haitian officials said.
The storm damaged nearly 200 homes in the Dominican Republic and left water supply systems out of service, affecting more than half a million customers. It also downed trees and traffic lights, triggered a pair of small landslides and left more than two dozen communities isolated by flooding.
The Bahamas Department of Meteorology said Melissa could bring tropical storm or hurricane conditions to the southeastern and central islands of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands early next week.
Melissa is the 13th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had forecast an above-normal season with between 13 and 18 named storms.
—Associated Press writer John Myers Jr. contributed to this report from Kingston.
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