Tropical storm Melissa was slowly advancing through the Caribbean Sea on Thursday, carrying the risk of landslides and dangerous flooding in Jamaica and southern Hispaniola. Authorities urged residents in flood-prone areas to seek higher ground, as reported by AP.
Dozens of people were already in shelters in the Dominican Republic, and schools, businesses, and government agencies were closed in the nine provinces under alert. Dozens of water supply systems were out of service on Wednesday, affecting over half a million customers.
In Jamaica, authorities said that 881 shelters would be available as needed. Courts were ordered to close, and schools were to switch to remote classes on Thursday.
Evan Thompson, director of the Jamaican Meteorological Service, said that the eastern region of the island could receive up to 30 centimeters (12 inches) of rain. "Now, that is a significant amount of rain, and that is the main thing we need to be aware of at this time," he stated.
Similar amounts of rain were expected for southern Haiti and southern Dominican Republic until Saturday, with even more rain possible in some areas depending on Melissa's trajectory later in the week. Heavy rains were also forecasted for western Jamaica, southern Hispaniola, Aruba, and Puerto Rico.
There was additional concern about the storm's impact on Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic and has been devastated by past storms. Gang violence, poverty, and ineffective governance mean that storm preparations are limited.
Early Thursday, Melissa had maximum sustained winds of 80 kilometers per hour and was moving west-northwest at 5 km/h, reported the US National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The slow-moving storm's center was about 485 km south-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and about 390 kilometers (about 240 miles) south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.
Melissa was expected to approach Jamaica and southwestern Haiti later in the week. It was forecasted to gradually strengthen and could become a hurricane by Friday and a Category 3 or higher hurricane by the weekend.
increasingly likely that Melissa will become a large and dangerous hurricane," warned the US center.
Melissa is the 13th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, and the first named storm to form in the Caribbean this year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had predicted an above-normal season with 13 to 18 named storms. Of those, it was forecasted that five to nine would become hurricanes, including two to five major hurricanes with winds of 178 km/h or higher.
The Atlantic hurricane season lasts from June 1 to November 30.