Overview
- Forecasters report sustained winds around 280 km/h and warn that Melissa’s crawl near 6 km/h could unleash 30–40 inches of rain over Jamaica and southern Hispaniola with life‑threatening floods and landslides.
- Jamaican authorities are conducting evacuations, have prepared roughly 800 shelters, and closed the Norman Manley and Sangster international airports.
- UN agencies activated anticipatory action in Cuba and Haiti with a $4 million CERF allocation and pre‑positioned aid, including 450 metric tons of food in Haiti plus hygiene and medical kits.
- Early casualties have been reported in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica, and a WMO hurricane specialist relayed an NHC warning of potential complete structural failure in parts of Jamaica.
- The National Hurricane Center projects a track near or over Cuba before a turn toward the Bahamas later this week, with prolonged hazards expected due to the storm’s slow movement.