WASHINGTON.- This Sunday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that, Melissa continues its movement the Caribbean as category 4 hurricanewith forecasts of a rapid strengthening the road to Jamaicaon alert alongside portions of Spanish by heavy rain and flooding sudden.
The eye of the storm was this morning about 180 kilometers south of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 445 kilometers south-southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba, with sustained winds of 220 kilometers per hour, higher gusts and hurricane force winds extending up to 35 kilometers from the center.
Melissa is moving slowly at about 6 kilometers per hour towards the west, warns the NHC report, issued at 11:00 local time (15:00 GMT).
It will make landfall in Jamaica
Forecasts from the Miami-based National Hurricane Center warn of “additional rapid intensification through tonight, followed by fluctuations in intensity” before landfall in Jamaica like a “powerful major hurricane” between Monday night and Tuesday morning, when it is also expected to arrive in Cuba.
Until the middle of next week they are expected tocatastrophic floods sudden and landslidesboth with danger to life“, in Jamaica, currently under a hurricane warning, and portions of southern Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which continue to be under a watch for heavy rain.
Forecasters expect the cyclone to move slowly westward today, followed by a turn to the north and northeast on Monday and Tuesday.
After passing through Jamaica and southeastern Cuba, they predict it will reach the Bahamas on Wednesday.
Melissa’s “fury”
Melissa could dump up to a total of 380 to 760 millimeters of rain, with possibilities of more than 1,000 millimeters in locations in southern Hispaniola and Jamaica until Wednesday, and between 152 and 304 millimeters in southeastern Cuba, according to the NHC, which warns of additional heavy rainfall throughout the week.
The storm has already caused at least three dead in Haiti and left millions of people without drinking water in the Dominican Republic, where the storm has also displaced hundreds of people.
Jamaican authorities have warned the population of the danger ahead, insisting that the Melissa’s “fury” It will hit the entire island.
Atlantic hurricane season
With Melissa, there are now 13 cyclones this season in the Atlantic: hurricanes Erin, Gabrielle, Humberto and Imelda, and storms Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dexter, Fernand, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo and Melissa, among which Chantal was the only one to make landfall in the US in July, leaving two dead in North Carolina.
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