Hurricane Melissa has rapidly strengthened into a potentially devastating storm in the Caribbean, as warned by U.S. forecasters on Sunday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center indicated that Melissa now boasts maximum sustained winds of 220 km/h, elevating it to Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.
Forecasters based in Miami anticipate Melissa’s continued intensification throughout the day, with a projected landfall in Jamaica by Monday night or early Tuesday. The storm, which was advancing westward at a speed of seven km/h on Saturday night, was situated approximately 195 kilometers southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.
Jamaica is under a hurricane warning, while portions of Haiti’s southwestern peninsula and southeastern Cuba are under hurricane watches. The storm is poised to unleash up to 1,000 millimeters of rainfall on Jamaica by Wednesday, with a similar forecast for southern Haiti and the Dominican Republic. These regions may experience life-threatening floods and landslides, with southwestern Haiti expecting up to 700 millimeters of catastrophic rainfall.
Eastern Cuba is also likely to be impacted by Wednesday, with certain areas potentially receiving up to 30 centimeters of rain. The slow-moving Melissa has already claimed at least three lives in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, with another person reported missing.
According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, Melissa’s prolonged duration poses severe risks, including damaging winds, heavy rainfall, flash flooding, landslides, infrastructure damage, prolonged power outages, and isolation. Authorities in Jamaica have activated over 650 shelters and stocked warehouses across the island with thousands of food packages for swift distribution.
In Haiti, three fatalities have been confirmed, along with five injuries due to structural collapses. Rising river levels, flooding, and infrastructure damage have been reported in various areas, causing growing apprehension among residents. The storm has caused extensive damage in the Dominican Republic, affecting nearly 200 homes, disrupting water supply systems, and isolating over two dozen communities with floodwaters.
The Bahamas Department of Meteorology has cautioned that Melissa could bring tropical storm or hurricane conditions to several islands in the Southeast and Central Bahamas, as well as the Turks and Caicos Islands early next week. Melissa marks the 13th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which spans from June 1 to November 30, in line with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s prediction of an above-normal season with 13 to 18 named storms.
