Closing summary
It’s 11.20pm Monday in Jamaica and we’re about to close this blog and resume our live coverage later in the evening. Here’s an overview of the key news, and you can read our latest full report here.
Hurricane Melissa intensified into a category 5 storm on Monday as it drew closer to Jamaica, where forecasters expected it to unleash catastrophic flooding, landslides and widespread damage.
The storm was on track to make landfall on Tuesday in Jamaica before coming ashore in Cuba later in the day and then heading toward the Bahamas. It has been blamed for seven deaths in the northern Caribbean as it headed towards Jamaica.
Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness said in anticipation of the coming damage: “I have been on my knees in prayer.”
Melissa was centred about 155 miles (245km) south-west of Kingston on Monday night local time. The system had maximum sustained winds of 175mph (280km/h) and was moving north-west at 2mph (4km/h), according to the US National Hurricane Centre.
At Melissa’s category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, it would be the strongest hurricane to hit the island since record-keeping began in 1851.
Parts of eastern Jamaica could see up to 30 inches (76cm) of rain while western Haiti could get 16 inches (40cm), the hurricane centre said, citing the likelihood of “catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides”. Jamaica faced “multiple life-threatening hazards”, it said. Among them was up to 13 feet (four metres) of storm surge inundation on parts of the south coast.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered in flood-prone communities in Jamaica, with buses ferrying people to safe shelter, although some people insisted on staying. Several towns on Jamaica’s southern coast reported power outages as winds picked up throughout the night.
Jamaican government officials said they were worried that fewer than 1,000 people were in the more than 130 shelters open across the island.
In eastern Cuba, a hurricane warning was in effect for the Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Holguin provinces, while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Las Tunas. Up to 20 inches (51cm) of rain was forecast for parts of Cuba, along with a significant storm surge along the coast.
Cuban officials said they would evacuate more than 600,000 people from the region, including Santiago, the island’s second-largest city. Long bus lines formed in some areas.
With agencies
Updated
Agence France-Presse has also spoken to some residents of Jamaica as Hurricane Melissa bears down on the island. Jamal Peters, a 34-year-old front manager at a hotel in Port Royal, is staying put during the storm.
“Jamaicans on the whole aren’t the type of people who would just get up and leave their home,” Peters said.
“They’d prefer to stay. And if a window blows out or something like that they can be there.”
Peters took up his post last month, and so far preparations at the 63-room waterfront hotel have involved moving guests to higher floors, battening down wherever possible, trimming trees and clearing out boats.
“We are still bracing for impact,” he said.
But for the most part, because this is not our first hurricane, Jamaicans would have been prepared for what’s to come.
Updated
