Jamaican officials issued dire warnings Saturday as Hurricane Melissa barrels toward the island, poised to become the strongest storm ever recorded there.
“Do not take this lightly,” said Daryl Vaz, Jamaica’s minister of science, energy, telecommunications and transport. “Do not make foolish decisions. Do not make stupid decisions like coming out into the middle of the storm to see what’s happening.”
Melissa is expected to quickly intensify throughout the weekend, according to the National Hurricane Center.
All airports in Jamaica will close at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Vaz announced. The last flight of the day will still be allowed to land if delayed, but all flights after that will be suspended until further notice.
Melissa is forecast to reach Category 4 strength when it moves through Jamaica — making it the strongest recorded storm to ever pass over the country, according to Evan Thompson, the principal director of Jamaica’s Meteorological Service.
“There is nowhere that will escape the wrath of this storm,” he said.
The storm will bring “20 to 30 inches of rain,” National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rhome said at a morning briefing. He called Melissa a “very concerning situation.”
“If you’ve got friends and family, if you got someone down there on vacation, it’s imperative that you get in touch with them, make sure that they are aware and tracking this situation and taking necessary precautions,” Rhome said.
Melissa has already claim the lives of at least three people in Haiti. The Haitian Civil Protection Agency said that two people died Thursday in a landslide near Port-au-Prince and an elderly man was killed by a falling tree in Marigot.
The storm was moving slowly west-northwest at 1 mph, about 145 miles southeast of Kingston as of 2 p.m. ET Saturday.
The hurricane center warned of “life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides” across Jamaica and southern Hispaniola through the weekend. In the Dominican Republic, more than 500,000 people have already lost water service amid downed trees and traffic disruptions.
