Jamaica Braces for Hurricane Melissa as Strongest Storm in Recorded History Roars In
by Simon Kent · BreitbartHurricane Melissa was roaring towards Jamaica early on Tuesday morning as a newly classified Category 5 storm, the strongest to lash the island since records began 174 years ago.
AP reports the extreme weather event was expected to make landfall as the day unfolded and slice diagonally across the island, entering near St. Elizabeth parish in the south and exiting around St. Ann parish in the north, forecasters said.
Melissa has already killed at least four people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The AP report set out some of the anticipated outcomes:
Hours before the storm, the government said it had done all it could to prepare as it warned of catastrophic damage. “There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. “The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge.” Landslides, fallen trees and numerous power outages were reported ahead of the storm, with officials in Jamaica cautioning that the cleanup and damage assessment would be slow.
The report went on to further state a life-threatening storm surge of up to 13 feet is expected across southern Jamaica, with officials concerned about the impact on some hospitals along the coastline.
Health Minister Christopher Tufton said some patients were relocated from the ground floor to the second floor, “and (we) hope that will suffice for any surge that will take place.”
The storm already was blamed for seven deaths in the Caribbean, including three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
“This is a frightening situation for Jamaica,” the country’s Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change told the BBC World Service’s Newsday program.
Matthew Samuda said some 70 percent of the population lives within 3.1 miles of the sea. The storm will affect several low lying areas like Kingston, Old Harbour Bay, Rocky Point and St Elizabeth, he noted.
“We hope we have done enough in terms of preparation,” he said, adding that they’ve spent the last week telling people about shelters around the island and to place sand bags in their homes to guard against flooding.
Amid preparation for the hurricane, he pointed out it has been a problem convincing people to go to shelters as they feel they must “protect their property as opposed to preserving their lives first”.
Samuda implored for those in the diaspora to call family members “before it’s too late”.