Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned on Monday evening that the approaching Category 5 hurricane Melissa could devastate the west of the island. In an interview with CNN, the Prime Minister of Jamaica expressed concern about whether the country’s infrastructure can withstand such an extremely powerful hurricane. TASR informs about it according to AFP and AP agencies.
“It (the hurricane) has been off the southern coast of Jamaica for several days now and is likely to turn northward. That means it could affect our coast, probably the western part of Jamaica,” stated. “And if that were to happen, I don’t think there’s any infrastructure in the area to withstand a Category 5 storm,” he admitted.
The hurricane is currently located about 200 kilometers south of the capital of Jamaica, Kingston, and the wind speed reaches 280 kilometers per hour. It moves extremely slowly, at a speed of about eight kilometers per hour. Therefore, it will be raging on the island longer than most hurricanes in the past. It is expected that it could hit the coast during Tuesday.
US National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a warning of “catastrophic” flash floods, landslides and damaging winds that could cause prolonged power outages and “extensive infrastructure damage”.
Meteorologists predict that Melissa will pass through Jamaica and move further north, where it will hit the eastern parts of Cuba and later the Bahamas archipelago. Heavy rains from the hurricane’s fringes have already killed at least three people in Haiti and one person in the Dominican Republic, where another remains missing.
