Hurricane Melissa intensified to a powerful Category 5 storm early Monday as forecasters warned it would cause catastrophic flash flooding, life-threatening landslides and extremely strong winds across the Caribbean.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned people in Jamaica to go to their shelters and stay there during the storm, with dangerous conditions beginning Monday and lasting through Tuesday.
Melissa is set to make landfall on Jamaica early Tuesday. Government officials are set to address the public at 11:30 a.m. Monday.
At 5 a.m. ET the storm was 130 miles south-west of Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, with sustained winds of 160 mph, putting it in the highest and most dangerous category on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale — and forecast to intensify even further.
The most powerful storm to hit the region since Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, Melissa will bring between 15 and 30 inches of rain to Jamaica, as well as extreme winds, extensive infrastructure damage and life-threatening storm surge along Jamaica’s southern coast, the NHC said.
Some areas of eastern Jamaica could be inundated with up to 40 inches of rain, more than some areas of the country typically get in a year.
Wind speeds in mountainous areas could be 30% higher that the main storm, meaning potential winds of more than 200 mph.
Desmond Mackenzie, Jamaica’s minister of local government and community development, said Sunday that many Jamaican communities “will not survive this flooding.”
Haiti and the Dominican Republic will also face catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding by midweek, the NHC said, while Cuba is set for heavy rain, floods and landslides from Monday onwards. There is also a hurricane watch for the central and southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
So far the storm has killed at least four people, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.
“Although interaction with Jamaica will lead to some weakening, Melissa is expected to reach southeastern Cuba as a major hurricane, and will also move across the southeastern Bahamas and be near Bermuda as a hurricane,” the NHC said in an analysis of the latest forecast.
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