Powerful Hurricane Melissa strengthens as it heads for Jamaica
Hurricane Melissa, already a major category 4 storm, strengthened as it headed for Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean, with forecasters predicting catastrophic flooding and urging residents to seek shelter immediately, News.Az reports citing the New Zeland Herald.
Melissa has already been blamed for at least four deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic this week, as its outer bands brought heavy rains and landslides.
The storm is moving at a worryingly slow pace – just 6km/h – which has meteorologists concerned that it will dump heavy rains on countries in its path for far longer than a storm that passes by more quickly.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that Melissa was packing maximum winds of about 225km/h – and would likely intensify into a top-level category 5 storm later Sunday.
Up to 1m of rain could hit parts of Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, sparking flash flooding and more landslides.
A 79-year-old man was found dead in the Dominican Republic after being swept away in a stream, local officials said on Saturday local time. A 13-year-old boy was missing.
In neighbouring Haiti, the civil protection agency reported the deaths of three people caused by storm conditions.
“You feel powerless, unable to do anything, just run away and leave everything behind,” Angelita Francisco, a 66-year-old who fled her neighbourhood in the Dominican Republic, told AFP through tears.
Floodwater had inundated her house, causing her refrigerator to float away.
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