Hurricane Melissa, which could be the strongest to make landfall in Jamaica and has already claimed several lives, is preparing to hit the Caribbean country today, where it threatens to cause catastrophic flooding and landslides. With winds of up to 280 kilometers per hour, the Category 5 hurricane, the strongest level, has already caused three deaths in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.
“Don’t go out,” urged the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), which predicts gusts of wind, flooding and “potentially lethal” devastation on a scale comparable to that caused by hurricanes Maria in 2017 or Katrina in 2005, in Puerto Rico and New Orleans.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned of particularly significant damage in the western part of the country. “I don’t think any infrastructure in that region can withstand a Category 5 hurricane, so there could be significant damage,” he told CNN, urging residents to evacuate the most at-risk areas.