Melissa is predicted to strengthen even additional into a significant catastrophic hurricane when making landfall in Jamaica.
Printed On 26 Oct 2025
Hurricane Melissa has quickly strengthened into a significant Class 3 with probably catastrophic penalties, because it dropped torrential rain within the northern Caribbean and threatened disastrous flooding and landslides in Jamaica and southern Haiti.
Forecasters in america warned Saturday that the lumbering Melissa is predicted to achieve energy when making landfall in Jamaica within the coming day or two.
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“I urge Jamaicans to take this climate menace critically,” stated Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness. “Take all measures to guard your self.”
Melissa was centred about 200km (125 miles) south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 455km (280 miles) west-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, late Saturday night time.
It had most sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour (115 miles per hour), the hurricane centre stated.
Authorities in Jamaica stated on Saturday that the Norman Manley Worldwide Airport in Kingston shall be closed. They didn’t say whether or not they are going to shut the Sangster airport in Montego Bay, on the western aspect of the island.
Greater than 650 shelters had been activated in Jamaica. Officers stated warehouses throughout the island had been well-stocked and hundreds of meals packages prepositioned for fast distribution if wanted.
Melissa was anticipated to unleash punishing rains of as much as 76 centimetres (30 inches) on Jamaica and southern Hispaniola – Haiti and the Dominican Republic – based on the hurricane centre.
It must be close to or over Cuba by the center of the week. The Cuban authorities on Saturday afternoon issued a hurricane look ahead to the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin.
The erratic and slow-moving storm has killed no less than three individuals in Haiti and a fourth particular person within the Dominican Republic, the place one other particular person stays lacking.
“Sadly for locations alongside the projected path of this storm, it’s more and more dire,” Jamie Rhome, the centre’s deputy director, stated earlier on Saturday. He stated the storm will proceed to maneuver slowly for as much as 4 days.
In Haiti, there have been additionally reviews of rising river ranges, flooding and a bridge destroyed attributable to breached riverbanks in Sainte-Suzanne, within the northeast.
“The storm is inflicting plenty of concern with the way in which it’s shifting,” stated Ronald Delice, a Haitian division director of civil safety, as native authorities organised strains to distribute meals kits. Many residents are nonetheless reluctant to depart their properties.
The storm has broken practically 200 properties within the Dominican Republic and knocked out water provide programs, affecting greater than half 1,000,000 prospects. It additionally downed bushes and visitors lights, unleashed a few small landslides and left greater than two dozen communities remoted by floodwaters.
The Bahamas Division of Meteorology stated Melissa may deliver tropical storm or hurricane circumstances to islands within the Southeast and Central Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands by early subsequent week.
Melissa is the thirteenth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.
