Jamaica braces as Hurricane Melissa strengthens offshore

As Hurricane Melissa continued to strengthen offshore, Jamaicans have been urged to find shelter.

Melissa was already a significant Category 4 storm and was expected to severely hit the Caribbean island nation on Monday. Areas in the hurricane’s path could experience prolonged, punishing conditions and significant amounts of rain due to the slow pace at which it moves, which is only 7 kilometers (4 miles per hour).

On Sunday night, Melissa was concentrated south of Kingston, Jamaica, about 205 kilometers (130 miles) south-southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba, and about 495 kilometers (310 miles) south-southwest of those locations. The Jamaican coast won’t experience rain until late on Monday or early Tuesday.

According to the US National Hurricane Center, the hurricane could be Category 5 in strength on Monday with winds higher than 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour) and a top sustained speed of 230 kilometers per hour (143mph) as of Sunday night.

As the storm moves over the island, threatening flash flooding and landslides, up to 1 metre (40 inches) of rainfall could fall on some parts of Jamaica.

In a webcast briefing, US National Hurricane Center (NHC) Deputy Director Jamie Rhome stated that “this extreme rainfall potential, attributed to the slow motion, is going to cause a catastrophic event here in Jamaica.”

You must just be where you’re going to be, according to Rhome, and be prepared to ride this out for a while.

Late on Sunday, Jamaica’s government mandated evacuations for Port Royal in Kingston, Portland Cottage and Rocky Point in Clarendon, Old Harbour Bay in Taylor Land, Bull Bay, New Haven, and Riverton City in St Andrew.

At a press conference, Desmond McKenzie, the minister of local government, declared, “Many of these communities will not survive this flooding.” No community in Kingston is immune to flooding, according to the saying “Kingston is low, extremely low.”

Nothing more can we as a government do than beg and request that people follow the instructions. I’ll go on my knees if it helps, he said.

You can’t win this wager, they say. You can’t beat Melissa, according to McKenzie, who advised people to visit more than 650 shelters across the nation.

The storm surge is anticipated to mostly be over the island’s southern side, according to Evan Thompson, the principal director of the Jamaican Meteorological Service.

Every parish in our nation has the potential for flooding, according to Thompson.

You need to take note if you’re in a low-lying, flood-prone area. You need to take special care and locate an alternative location that you can move to if the heavy rainfall threatens you.

Winston Moxam was chatting with the AFP news agency as he hurriedly prepared his house for the incoming storm.

Maxim said, “I lose my roof, I lose a lot of things,” noting that he was particularly concerned by warnings the storm might be worse than the devastating Hurricane Gilbert of 1988, which left more than 40 people dead in Jamaica and hundreds more dead in other parts of the Caribbean and Mexico.

Both Montego Bay’s two main airports, Montego Bay’s Norman Manley International Airport and Sangster International Airport, were shut down, as well as the country’s two major seaports.

Trail of destruction

The storm is expected to move north and cross eastern Cuba on Tuesday night after passing over Jamaica, and it will continue to bring heavy rain and strong winds to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Due to the country’s outer bands, which produced heavy rain and landslides, Melissa has already been blamed for at least four fatalities this week in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Nine out of the 31 provinces are on red alert in the Dominican Republic as a result of the risk of flash floods, rising rivers, and landslides.

Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, and Holguin provinces were issued a hurricane warning by the Cuban government. Additionally, it issued a tropical storm warning for Las Tunas, a province.

A daily reality, or not?

Despite having hurricanes before, warming oceans and air temperatures are making tropical storms more frequent and severe, among other things.

Jamaica, a country with fewer than three million people on the planet, accounts for only 0.02 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to World Resources Institute data. However, it is expected to continue to suffer from the effects of climate change.

Andrew Holness, the prime minister of Jamaica, urged wealthy nations to increase climate financing to aid developing nations like Jamaica in a speech at the UN General Assembly in September.

“Climate change is not a distant threat or a topic of study.” He claimed that small, in-developed nations like Jamaica experience it daily.

The Atlantic hurricane season starts in early June and ends in late November with Melissa as the 13th named storm.

Beryl, which was a particularly strong storm for the time of year, was the last major hurricane to hit Jamaica in early July 2024.

Source: Aljazeera