Melissa strengthens into a Category 4 hurricane, threatening catastrophic flooding in Jamaica, Haiti

KINGSTON Jamaica AP Hurricane Melissa strengthened into a major Category hurricane with the possibility of intensifying to a Category storm Sunday night unleashing torrential rain and threatening to cause catastrophic flooding in the northern Caribbean including Haiti and Jamaica the U S National Hurricane Center commented The weather agency added Melissa is likely to reach the southern coast of Jamaica as a major hurricane late Monday or Tuesday morning and urged people on the island to seek shelter forthwith I urge Jamaicans to take this weather threat seriously noted Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness Take all measures to protect yourself Melissa was centered about miles kilometers south-southeast of Kingston Jamaica and about miles kilometers south-southwest of Guantanamo Cuba Sunday morning It had maximum sustained winds of mph kph and was moving west at mph kph the hurricane center reported Melissa was expected to drop torrential rains of up to inches millimeters on Jamaica and southern Hispaniola Haiti and the Dominican Republic according to the hurricane center Chosen areas may see as much as inches millimeters of rain It also warned that extensive damage to infrastructure power and communication outages and the isolation of communities in Jamaica were to be expected Melissa should be near or over Cuba by late Tuesday where it could bring up to inches millimeters of rain before moving toward the Bahamas later Wednesday The Cuban regime on Saturday afternoon issued a hurricane watch for the provinces of Granma Santiago de Cuba Guantanamo and Holguin Storm s slow progress The erratic and slow-moving storm has killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth person in the Dominican Republic where another person remains missing Unfortunately for places along the projected path of this storm it is increasingly dire Jamie Rhome the center s deputy director announced earlier on Saturday He noted the storm will continue to move slowly for up to four days Agents in Jamaica announced on Saturday that the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston will be closed at p m local time It did not say whether it will close the Sangster airport in Montego Bay on the western side of the island More than shelters were activated in Jamaica Agents mentioned warehouses across the island were well-stocked and thousands of food packages prepositioned for quick distribution if needed River levels rise Haitian personnel declared three people had died as a consequence of the hurricane and another five were injured due to a collapsed wall There were also reports of rising river levels flooding and a bridge destroyed due to breached riverbanks in Sainte-Suzanne in the northeast The storm is causing a lot of concern with the way it s moving explained Ronald D lice a Haitian department director of civil protection as local bureaucrats organized lines to distribute food kits Numerous residents are still reluctant to leave their homes The storm has damaged nearly homes in the Dominican Republic and knocked out water supply systems affecting more than half a million customers It also downed trees and traffic lights unleashed a couple of small landslides and left more than two dozen communities isolated by floodwaters The Bahamas Department of Meteorology disclosed Melissa could bring tropical storm or hurricane conditions to islands in the Southeast and Central Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands by early next week Melissa is the th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season which runs from June to Nov The U S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had predicted an above-normal season with to named storms Associated Press writer Evens Sanon in Port-au-Prince Haiti contributed to this review