Jamaican officials call on public to get to higher ground and shelters ahead of hurricane amid warning of ‘multiple life-threatening hazards’
The devastating impact of the hurricane has already being felt in Jamaica. The island’s health and wellness ministry reported on Monday evening that there had been three storm-related deaths “in preparation” for the hurricane.
The Jamaican ministry of health and wellness added in its post on X:
We urge the public to exercise extreme caution: activities such as climbing roofs, securing sandbags, or cutting trees may seem manageable, but even minor mistakes during hurricane conditions can result in serious injury or death.
Driving through flooded roads or areas with debris is also extremely hazardous. Health centres remain closed, but hospitals are open and attending to storm-related injuries. Please be wise, stay safe, and protect yourself and your family during this storm.
Jamaican officials called on the public to get to higher ground and shelters on Monday evening ahead of the category 5 hurricane, with prime minister Andrew Holness warning it could be a massively destructive storm – the island’s most violent on record.
The storm was on track to make landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday, with forecasters saying it could cause catastrophic destruction from flooding, winds and landslides.
The storm was set to go ashore in Cuba later on Tuesday and then head toward the Bahamas.
Melissa has been blamed for seven deaths in the northern Caribbean as it moved towards Jamaica.
The US National Hurricane Centre said the storm was “potentially catastrophic” and that “multiple life-threatening hazards” were in play in Jamaica. Among them was up to 13 feet (four metres) of storm surge inundation on parts of the south coast.
Melissa was centred about 155 miles (245km) south-west of Kingston on Monday night local time. The system had maximum sustained winds of 175mph (280km/h) and was moving north-west at 2mph (4km/h), the US National Hurricane Centre said. At category 5 – the top of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale – Melissa would be the strongest hurricane on record to hit Jamaica directly.
Parts of eastern Jamaica could see up to 30 inches (76cm) of rain, the centre said, citing the likelihood of “catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides”.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered in flood-prone communities in Jamaica but some people insisted on staying. Jamaican government officials said they were worried that fewer than 1,000 people were in the more than 130 shelters open across the island.
Several towns on Jamaica’s southern coast reported power outages as winds picked up throughout the night.
In eastern Cuba, a hurricane warning was in effect for the Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Holguin provinces, while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Las Tunas. Up to 20 inches (51cm) of rain was forecast for parts of Cuba, along with a significant storm surge along the coast.
Cuban officials said they would evacuate more than 600,000 people from the region, including Santiago, the island’s second-largest city.
With agencies
