Hurricane Melissa is approaching landfall in Jamaica Tuesday morning. Jamaicans can expect life-threatening conditions from flooding rain, mudslides, catastrophic winds, and deadly storm surge from what is likely to be the strongest hurricane to hit the island in recorded history. Jamaican authorities have warned that there are no structures on the island that are built to withstand a category 5 hurricane.
At 5 am Tuesday, Melissa was about 115 miles west-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica and 290 miles southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba. Maximum sustained winds were 175 miles per hour with higher gusts. Melissa was moving north-northeast at 5 miles per hour.
Hurricane warnings are in effect for Jamaica, eastern Cuba, and the central and southeastern Bahamas. There are hurricane watches and tropical storm warnings for the Turks and Caicos, as well as tropical storm warnings for Haiti and Las Tunas province in Cuba. Watches and warnings for Bermuda are possible later on Tuesday.
Melissa is forecast to be a major hurricane when it comes ashore in Cuba early on Wednesday. It is still expected to be a hurricane as it moves through portions of the Bahamas and then accelerates in the direction of Bermuda on Thursday into Friday.
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