Storm Melissa exploded in strength overnight, barrelling toward an expected landfall Tuesday on Jamaica as a major hurricane and threatening deadly floods in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
Melissa’s top winds reached 140mph (225km/h) early on Sunday, rising from 70mph on Saturday, making it a Category 4 storm as it churns about 120 miles (193km) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
With the increase in wind speed easily surpassing the benchmark for rapid intensification, Melissa is forecast to reach Category 5, the most destructive hurricane level.
“Seek shelter now,” Robbie Berg, a warning co-ordination meteorologist at the hurricane centre, wrote in his forecast. On Jamaica, “damaging winds and heavy rainfall today and on Monday will cause catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding and numerous landslides before the strongest winds arrive Monday night and Tuesday morning.”
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The storm has already disrupted air travel, sent tourists scurrying for flights to get home and put regional governments on high alert as they face the potential of billions of dollars in damage and losses. The impact will be felt across the western Caribbean, where the storm’s flooding rains are blamed for at least four deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Melissa will make a second landfall in eastern Cuba on Wednesday before spiralling through the southern Bahamas and into the Atlantic. The US Navy evacuated non-essential personnel from its Guantánamo Bay base.
Melissa’s slow crawl across the region makes flooding worse because its heaviest rains will linger for days. In a warmer world due to climate change, the atmosphere holds more water, exacerbating heavy rains from tropical systems.
Many communities across the region may be left without power and communications for days or longer after the storm passes, the hurricane centre said.
– Bloomberg
