{"id":147737,"date":"2025-10-27T12:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/147737\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T12:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:07:15","slug":"hurricane-melissa-could-be-strongest-to-ever-hit-jamaica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/147737\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Melissa could be strongest to ever hit Jamaica"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"REUTERS\/OctavioREUTERS\/Octavio Jones<\/p>\n

Residents in Kingston prepare for the storm with sandbags<\/p>\n

People in Jamaica are bracing for the impact of Hurricane Melissa, which is forecast to unleash destructive winds and bring catastrophic flooding to the Caribbean nation in the coming hours.<\/p>\n

Melissa was upgraded to a category five hurricane – the maximum strength – early on Monday, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.<\/p>\n

The authorities fear that Melissa, which has already been blamed for the deaths of four people on the island of Hispaniola, could become the strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica.<\/p>\n

\"REUTERS\/GilbertREUTERS\/Gilbert Bellamy<\/p>\n

Big waves were already breaking on the coast of Jamaica on Saturday, a storm surge is expected later on Monday and into Tuesday<\/p>\n

The Jamaican government has ordered evacuations for parts of the capital, Kingston, and the entire island has been classed as “threatened”. <\/p>\n

An update from the NHC at 09:00GMT said that Melissa was about 130 miles (209km) south-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

It has maximum sustained wind speeds of 160mph (260km\/h) and could strengthen further in the next 12 to 24 hours, forecasters warned. <\/p>\n

If it continues on the forecasted track, its core is expected “to move near or over Jamaica tonight and Tuesday, across south-eastern Cuba Tuesday night, and across the south-eastern Bahamas on Wednesday”.<\/p>\n

The storm is particularly slow moving, which makes it very dangerous in terms of expected rainfall amounts.<\/p>\n

According to the NHC, 40 inches of rain (100cm) are possible in parts of Jamaica over the next four days. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Forecasters warn that destructive winds and life-threatening storm surges are expected to hit Jamaica overnight or early on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has ordered the immediate evacuation of several vulnerable communities across the island. <\/p>\n

Officials also urged residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas to seek shelter in safer areas.<\/p>\n

Jamaica’s Minister of Local Government, Desmond McKenzie, told local media that all of the island’s 881 shelters were open.<\/p>\n

\"OrlandoOrlando Barr\u00eda\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Heavy rains brought by Hurricane Melissa flooded neighbourhoods in the Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic<\/p>\n

At least three people are known to have died and hundreds of homes have been flooded in Haiti as Melissa brought torrential rainfall to the island of Hispaniola.<\/p>\n

In the Dominican Republic, located on the eastern side of Hispaniola, one person also died. <\/p>\n

Local media identified the victim as a 79-year-old man who had been swept away by floodwaters in the capital, Santo Domingo. <\/p>\n

A 13-year-old has also been reported missing after being dragged away by strong currents as he was swimming in the sea. <\/p>\n

Several people were rescued after being trapped in their cars by the rising floodwater. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REUTERS\/Octavio Jones Residents in Kingston prepare for the storm with sandbags People in Jamaica are bracing for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,19,17,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-147737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115446051801612892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}