Melissa strengthens into a Category 5 hurricane as it approaches Jamaica

Hurricane Melissa strengthened to Category 5 on Monday as it approached Jamaica with up to 30 inches of rain and life-threatening storm surge.

Melissa is expected to make landfall on the island on Tuesday and transit Cuba and the Bahamas until Wednesday.

The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said Melissa’s center was about 130 miles southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 315 miles southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba.

The hurricane’s maximum wind speed was 160 mph and it was moving west at 3 mph, the center said.

Category 5 is the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale with sustained winds exceeding 157 mph. Melissa is the strongest hurricane in modern history to directly hit the small Caribbean nation.

Some locales in eastern Jamaica could receive 40 inches of rain while western Haiti could receive up to 16 inches, according to the Hurricane Center. It warned of the possibility of catastrophic floods and numerous landslides.

The slow-moving storm killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth person in the Dominican Republic, where another person is still missing.

“I want to urge Jamaicans to take this seriously,” said Desmond McKenzie, vice-chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Board. “Don’t gamble with Melissa. It’s not a safe bet.”

The hurricane is expected to make landfall again later Tuesday in eastern Cuba. A hurricane warning was in effect for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin, while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Las Tunas. Up to 20 inches of rain is expected in parts of Cuba, along with a major storm surge along the coast.

Record storm for Jamaica

Evan Thompson, chief director of the Jamaica Meteorological Service, said Melissa could be the strongest hurricane Jamaica has seen in decades. He warned that clean-up and damage assessment operations would be severely delayed due to landslides, floods and expected closed roads.

In addition to the rainfall, Melissa will likely cause a life-threatening storm surge on Jamaica’s south coast, where it will peak about 13 feet above ground level, near and to the east of where Melissa’s center makes landfall, the US center said.

“Don’t make foolish decisions,” warned Daryl Vaz, Jamaica’s Minister of Transport. “We are in a very dangerous time over the next few days.”

Strike on Hispaniola

The storm has already dumped heavy rains on the Dominican Republic, where schools and government offices were ordered to remain closed on Monday in four of the nine provinces still under red alert.

Hurricane Melissa damaged more than 750 homes across the country, displacing more than 3,760 people. Floodwaters also cut off access to at least 48 communities, officials said.

In neighboring Haiti, the storm destroyed crops in three areas, including 37 acres of corn, at a time when at least 5.7 million people, more than half the country’s population, are suffering from flooding. Hunger crisis levelswith 1.9 million of those facing emergency levels of hunger.

“Floods impede access to farmland and markets, putting crops and the winter agricultural season at risk,” the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said.

Melissa is expected to continue to bring heavy rains over southern Haiti and the southern Dominican Republic in the coming days.