The storm’s intensification — with sustained winds stronger than those of Hurricane Katrina at its peak — came with dire warnings from officials.
“Jamaica, this is not the time to be brave,” said Desmond McKenzie, the minister coordinating disaster response. “Don’t bet against Melissa. It is a bet we can’t win.”
Forecasters for the U.S. National Weather Service made a similar warning to people in the hurricane’s path, saying this was the “last chance to protect your life.”
More intense than the Category 5 strength of Katrina, which pummeled New Orleans in 2005, Melissa is now the fifth-strongest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted Melissa would make landfall — the moment the center of its eye reaches land — in the next few hours. But long before that, rain and wind were lashing buildings and soaking hillsides, raising the threat of deadly floods and devastating landslides.Forecasters were predicting rains measured in feet, not inches, for Jamaica and other Caribbean nations this week. Despite their warnings about destructive winds, rain and floods, officials in Jamaica were worried that not enough people were heeding evacuation orders.The winds in Melissa’s eye wall were so strong that they could cause “total structural failure” and widespread power and communication outages, the hurricane center said Monday. At least three people have died in connection to preparations for the storm, and 13 others were injured, officials said.
Here’s what else to know:
— Tracking the storm: Strengthened by Caribbean water temperatures far warmer than usual, Melissa is expected to remain an intensely destructive force throughout the next few days as it passes through the Caribbean, while bypassing the United States.
— Regional preparations: Nearly 900,000 people have been ordered to evacuate Cuba’s eastern provinces. The U.S. Navy has completed the evacuation of about 1,000 nonessential personnel from its base at Guantánamo Bay and moved out of the storm’s path eight U.S. Navy warships deployed to the Caribbean as part of a Trump administration campaign against drug traffickers.
— Staff shortages: National Weather Service data-gathering and updates continue despite the U.S. government shutdown, because they are considered essential for public safety. But the weather service is already operating at reduced staffing after the Trump administration slashed the number of employees at many of the agencies traditionally responsible for planning for and responding to natural disasters.
— Limited donations: The World Food Program has positioned 450 metric tons of food in Haiti in advance of the hurricane — a fraction of the amount that the United Nations agency normally has on standby in a natural disaster there, it said. The agency is financed by donors, many of which have shifted priorities to the Gaza Strip and Ukraine.
(This article originally appeared in The New York Times)
