Washington.- Melissa became category 1 hurricane this Saturday at Caribbeanwhere it is expected to rapidly gain intensity until it becomes a dangerous storm that will bring heavy rain to Jamaica and portions of Hispaniola, reported the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The center of Melissa was this afternoon about 230 kilometers southeast of Kingston and about 380 kilometers southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour and a slow movement towards the west-northwest at about 2 kilometers per hour, according to the most recent report from the NHC.
The forecasts of the center, based in Miami, warn that Melissa could get stronger quickly in the next 24 hours, with the possibility of it evolving into a «major hurricane for sunday«.
Until the beginning of next week they are expected «catastrophic flash floods and landslides, both with danger to life”, in Jamaicacurrently under hurricane warningand portions of southern Haiti and Dominican Republicboth under surveillance due to heavy rains.
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Meteorologists expect the cyclone turn north and the northeast between Monday and Tuesday.
According to the predicted trajectorythe center of Melissa would move close to Jamaica during this weekend and the beginning of the next, when it would be located near or over eastern Cuba on Wednesday or Thursday.
The storm has already caused at least three deaths in Haiti and more than 1.2 million people are without drinking water in the Dominican Republicwhere the storm also left dozens of aqueducts out of service and displaced hundreds of people.
With Melissa There are already 13 cyclones this season in the Atlantic: the hurricanes Erin, Gabrielle, Humberto and Imeldaand the storms Andrea, Barry, ChantalDexter, Fernand, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo and Melissaamong which Chantal was the only one to make landfall in the US in July, leaving two dead in North Carolina.
