Tropical Storm Melissa, which is moving slowly over the Central Caribbean, has experienced significant intensification and is expected to become a hurricane during the next few hours, raising the alert level over the islands of Jamaica, Hispaniola and eastern Cuba.
The most characteristic thing about the phenomenon is its slow movement of only 2 km/h, which would prolong the exposure to torrential rains and strong winds, which could produce a trail of catastrophe in the region.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the United StatesAt 8:00 AM EDT (1200 UTC) this Saturday, Tropical Storm Melissa was located about 260 kilometers southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, with maximum sustained winds of 110 km/h, close to hurricane speeds.
The expectation is that Melissa will become a hurricane shortly and reach category 3 or higher by tomorrow, Sunday.
The center of the storm is expected to pass near or south of Jamaica early next week, between Monday and Tuesday.
That country is under a Hurricane Warning and is considered the epicenter of a very severe threat: destructive winds, storm surge and flooding due to extreme rainfall.
According to CNN reports Prime Minister Andrew Holness has urged people to take immediate action. Public hospitals have been placed in “emergency mode” since Thursday to ensure bed availability.
Jamaica Meteorological Service Principal Director Evan Thompson said “there is a possibility not only of roofs being lifted, but also of major structures being torn down,” according to the Jamaica Observer. “We would be very affected.”
Deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Also in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the effects of Melissa’s slow movement are already evident, and a worsening of the situation is expected during the rest of the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday.
The torrential rains of recent days have caused at least three deaths in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, where more than a thousand people have been evacuated, according to reports from CNN.
The situation in Cuba
The Cuban Meteorological Institute (INSMET) maintains close monitoring of the system, and in its Tropical Cyclone Warning No. 9, confirms the intensification of Melissa and its potential danger for the eastern region of the island.
Cuba is in the information phase, and the population has been called to remain attentive to the official reports.
On Friday, rescue teams and Red Cross volunteers were looking for two men, aged 74 and 64, who had been missing from their homes for three days, when they left work.
Authorities and residents of Sagua de Tánamo search for two men missing after a river flood
The flooding of the Sagua de Tánamo river, in the Holguín province, according to the local newspaper Now, could have been the cause of these disappearances. At least one eyewitness observed a person with characteristics similar to one of the men crossing a bridge covered in water and being swept away by the force of the current.
Heavy rains cause bridges to collapse and massive evacuations in Baracoa
An informative report from INSMET on the weather outlook, issued at 9:00 am this Saturday, explains that “over Cuba and adjacent seas the influence of continental high pressure continues, the center of which was located south of the Great Lakes, a system that imposes northeasterly winds in a large part of the Cuban archipelago. This configuration favored the arrival of areas of cloudy to localities on the north coast, with the occurrence of isolated showers and rains.”
He adds that “the proximity of tropical cyclone Melissa will be increasing the humidity content in the geographical environment during this day, which when combined with local scale factors will be stimulating the occurrence of showers, rains and isolated electrical storms in locations in the eastern half of the country.”
