Hurricane Melissa roared toward Jamaica with destructive Category 4 winds Monday and was expected to strengthen further before making landfall on the Caribbean nation with up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rain and a life-threatening storm surge.
Some local areas of eastern Jamaica could get 40 inches (1 meter) of rain while western Haiti could get 16 inches (40 centimeters), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides are likely,” it warned.
