A hurricane due to hit Jamaica and Cuba has intensified and could reach Category 5 – the highest – when it makes landfall either this evening or early on Tuesday, forecasters have warned.
It is expected to bring catastrophic floods, landslides and storm surges to the region, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Jamaican authorities have urged residents to evacuate to one of 900 shelters set up across the island.
And on Sunday night, Prime Minister Andrew Holness issued mandatory evacuation orders for Port Royal in the capital Kingston and six other areas.
Storm Melissa currently has maximum sustained winds of up to 140mph (220kph) and is expected to strengthen as it heads towards Jamaica.
Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government, said: “Many of these communities will not survive this flooding.
“Kingston is low, extremely low… No community in Kingston is immune from flooding.”
Both international airports are closed.
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The slow-moving storm has already killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth person in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
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The NHC said Melissa is expected to bring 38cm (15 inches) to 76cm (30 inches) of rain to Jamaica and southern Hispaniola with a local maximum of more than a metre (40 inches).
Eastern Cuba is expected to receive 25cm (10 inches) to 38cm (15 inches), with local amounts of up to 51cm (20 inches).
There are warnings of extensive damage to infrastructure, power and communication outages, and the isolation of many communities in Jamaica.
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Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s information minister, said the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency is ready to provide assistance, and several international partners have already pledged support.
“We’ve heard the rainfall numbers. They’re numbers we’ve never heard before,” she said.
