Hurricane Melissa, which has developed right into a Class 4 hurricane, strikes westward within the Caribbean Sea in the direction of Jamaica in a composite satellite tv for pc picture obtained by Reuters on Oct. 26, 2025.
Cira/noaa | Through Reuters
Hurricane Melissa strengthened into a serious Class 4 hurricane, with the potential for intensifying to a Class 5 storm Sunday night time, unleashing torrential rain and threatening to trigger catastrophic flooding within the northern Caribbean, together with Haiti and Jamaica, the U.S. Nationwide Hurricane Heart mentioned.
The climate company added that Melissa is prone to attain the southern coast of Jamaica as a serious hurricane late Monday or Tuesday morning, and urged folks on the island to hunt shelter instantly.
“Situations (in Jamaica) are going to go down quickly right now,” Jamie Rhome, the middle’s deputy director, mentioned on Sunday. “Be able to trip this out for a number of days.”
Melissa was centered about 110 miles (180 kilometers) south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 280 miles (445 kilometers) south-southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba, on Sunday morning. It had most sustained winds of 140 mph (220 kph) and was shifting west at 3 mph (5 kph), the hurricane middle mentioned.
Melissa was anticipated to drop torrential rains of as much as 30 inches (760 millimeters) on Jamaica and southern Hispaniola — Haiti and the Dominican Republic — in accordance with the hurricane middle. Some areas may even see as a lot as 40 inches (1,010 millimeters) of rain.
It additionally warned that in depth harm to infrastructure, energy and communication outages, and the isolation of communities in Jamaica had been to be anticipated.
Melissa needs to be close to or over Cuba by late Tuesday, the place it might deliver as much as 12 inches (300 millimeters) of rain, earlier than shifting towards the Bahamas later Wednesday.
The U.S. Nationwide Hurricane Heart mentioned on Sunday that the hurricane look ahead to Cuba might be upgraded to a warning in a while Sunday.
Airports closed and shelters activated
The erratic and slow-moving storm has killed at the very least three folks in Haiti and a fourth particular person within the Dominican Republic, the place one other particular person stays lacking.
Jamaica’s authorities mentioned the primary airport in Montego Bay, Sangster Worldwide Airport, will shut down at noon native time on Sunday because the island’s nationwide emergency company activated its stage 3 emergency protocol forward of Melissa.
The most important airport on the island, Norman Manley Worldwide Airport within the capital, Kingston, closed at 9 p.m. on Saturday.
“With the sluggish motion of this method, it does not let you get well. It should sit there, pouring water whereas it is barely shifting and that could be a vital problem that we have now to concentrate on,” warned Evan Thompson, principal director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica.
“There’s nowhere that can escape the wrath of this hurricane,” Richard Thompson, appearing director common of the Workplace of Catastrophe Preparedness and Emergency Administration mentioned.
He mentioned all members of the Nationwide Response Staff at the moment are on full alert.
Greater than 650 shelters had been activated in Jamaica. Officers mentioned warehouses throughout the island had been well-stocked and hundreds of meals packages pre-positioned for fast distribution if wanted.
Communities lower off by rising waters
Haitian authorities mentioned three folks had died as a consequence of the hurricane and one other 5 had been injured attributable to a collapsed wall. There have been additionally stories of rising river ranges, flooding and a bridge destroyed attributable to breached riverbanks in Sainte-Suzanne, within the northeast.
Many residents are nonetheless reluctant to go away their properties, Haitian officers mentioned.
The storm broken practically 200 properties within the Dominican Republic and knocked out water provide methods, affecting greater than half one million clients. It additionally downed timber and visitors lights, unleashed a few small landslides and left greater than two dozen communities remoted by floodwaters.
The Bahamas Division of Meteorology mentioned Melissa might 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 Nov. 30.
The U.S. Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had predicted an above-normal season with 13 to 18 named storms.
