Jamaican authorities issued dire warnings Saturday as Hurricane Melissa barrels toward the island, poised to become the strongest storm ever recorded there.
“Do not take this lightly,” said Daryl Vaz, Jamaica’s minister of science, energy, telecommunications and transportation. “Don’t make stupid decisions. Don’t make stupid decisions like going out into the middle of the storm to see what’s going on.”
Melissa It is expected to intensify rapidly over the weekend, according to the National Hurricane Center.
All Jamaica airports will close at 8 pm on Saturday, Vaz announced. The last flight of the day will still be able to land if it is delayed, but all subsequent flights will be suspended until further notice.
Melissa is expected to reach category 4 as it passes over Jamaica, making it the strongest recorded storm to ever pass through the country, according to Evan Thompson, senior director of the Jamaica Meteorological Service.
“There is no place that escapes the wrath of this storm,” he said.
The storm will bring “20 to 30 inches of rain,” National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rhome said at a morning briefing. He called Melissa a “very concerning situation.”
“If you have friends and family, if you have someone there on vacation, it is imperative that you contact them, make sure they are aware, monitoring this situation and taking the necessary precautions,” Rhome said.
Melissa has already claimed the lives of at least three people in Haiti. Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said two people were killed Thursday in a landslide near Port-au-Prince and an elderly man was killed by a falling tree in Marigot.
The storm was moving slowly west-northwest at 1 mph, approximately 145 miles southeast of Kingston as of 2 p.m. ET Saturday.
The hurricane center warned of “catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding and landslides” in Jamaica and southern Hispaniola over the weekend. In the Dominican Republic, more than 500,000 people have already been left without water service amid fallen trees and traffic disruptions.
