US forecasters have issued a hurricane warning for Jamaica as Storm Melissa reached hurricane strength and is expected to “rapidly intensify” into at least a Category 4 when making landfall in Jamaica early next week.
The warning means winds of at least 74mph (119kph) are expected in the area within 36 hours.
Melissa is “likely starting to rapidly intensify and expected to become a major hurricane tomorrow”, the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said on Saturday.
The hurricane is expected to bring torrential rain of up to 25in (64cm) when it hits Jamaica. A similar forecast was issued for the southern regions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic through to Monday.
On Saturday evening, Melissa was centred about 125 miles (200km) south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 280 miles (455km) west-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It had maximum sustained winds of 115mph (185 kph) and was moving west at 3mph (6kph), the hurricane centre said.
The storm has killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth person in the Dominican Republic.
In Les Cayes, Haiti, residents said the effects of Melissa were catastrophic.
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“The sea took our house. We have no place to stay. We came to the high school, but we have nothing to give the children to eat. We ask for help and support. We are not asking for much,” one woman, who didn’t want to provide her name, told the AP news agency.
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Other people in the area are in shelters.
“I would like to move, but I have no place to go. I packed everything. I don’t have the means to go,” another resident said.
The storm has damaged nearly 200 homes in the Dominican Republic and knocked out water supply systems, affecting more than half a million customers. It also downed trees and traffic lights, unleashed small landslides and left more than two dozen communities isolated by floodwaters.
Authorities in Jamaica said the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston will be closed at 8pm local time on Sunday They did not say whether it will close the Sangster airport in Montego Bay, on the western side of the island.
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More than 650 shelters have been set up in Jamaica. Officials said warehouses across the island were well-stocked and thousands of food packages prepositioned for quick distribution if needed.
“So I would urge all my fellow citizens, everyone who is now feeling nervous, anxious, uncertain, that now is the time to be prepared,” said Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
The Cuban government on Saturday issued a hurricane watch for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin.
According to Cuban official television images, clean-up work is being carried out and fumigation of homes to prevent the spread of the epidemic outbreaks.
