Jamaicans take shelter as Hurricane Melissa turns toward Jamaica’s south coast
The Guardian’s Natricia Duncan and Anthony Lugg in Jamaica report:
Jamaicans have started to take shelter from Hurricane Melissa as high winds topple trees and cause power cuts ahead of the category 5 storm making landfall on Tuesday.
The slow-moving giant, the strongest hurricane to hit the island since records began in 1851, is increasing in intensity and forecast to linger over the island. Authorities fear it will unleash catastrophic flooding, landslides and extensive infrastructure damage.
In the south-western parish of St Elizabeth, winds are already becoming ferocious, with one tree falling on to electricity poles and knocking out power.
The parish also borne the brunt of Hurricane Beryl, which caused historic levels of destruction in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Jamaica last year. Some people say they have only recently completed work on their properties after Beryl.
The director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica, Evan Thompson, has been warning that no part of the island is likely be spared Melissa’s deadly combination of rapid intensification and snail-paced advance.
“If it continues as projected in terms of the turn toward the island, we should therefore on Tuesday look for the hurricane force winds starting to impact southern coastal areas and then gradually spreading as the system moves closer to the coastline,” he said
Key events
Continuing with the update from Dr Michael Brennan, the US National Hurricane Center’s director said Melissa could also cause up to 13 feet (four metres) of storm surge inundation on parts of Jamaica’s south coast.
With the storm’s centre forecast to reach Jamaica’s coast sometime early Tuesday, destructive winds were expected in Melissa’s eyewall as it made landfall and moved across the island.
Brennan said:
So we could have complete damage, destruction of shelters, homes and buildings in the path of that eyewall, not just along the coast but in areas of high terrain across the central part of the island as the centre of Melissa moves across the island during the day on Tuesday …
Everyone in Jamaica needs to be in their safe place now to ride out the storm all the way through tomorrow.
We’re also very concerned about the potential for life-threatening storm surge inundation near and to the right of where the centre crosses the south coast early tomorrow, with the potential for nine to 13 feet [2.7 to 4 metres] of inundation…
We’re also expecting destructive wave action along the coast as well, and significant storm surge all the way well east of the centre, over in the Kingston area.
The US National Hurricane Center’s director gave an update about three hours ago on Hurricane Melissa’s movements as it was located about 140 miles (225km) south-west of Kingston, Jamaica, with maximum sustained winds of about 175 mph.
Looking at a live map, Dr Michael Brennan said:
You see a well-defined eye here in satellite imagery. And Melissa has started to move a little more to the north now – the motion is around north-west at about 3 miles per hour. If you remember earlier today it was moving west, so we’re starting to see that turn to the north and then the north north-east – it’s going the bring the centre of Melissa to the south coast of Jamaica early Tuesday morning.
“Multiple life-threatening hazards” were in play for the island, Brennan said in his update, which was streamed on YouTube.
Hurricane Melissa is expected to bring “catastrophic and life-threatening winds, flooding and storm surge to Jamaica” later on Monday and on Tuesday, the US National Hurricane Center has just warned in a post on social media.
It’s now 7.09pm local time Monday on the island.
The category 5 storm is on track to make landfall on Tuesday before reaching Cuba later in the day and then heading towards the Bahamas.
As the Guardian has reported, the Meteorological Service of Jamaica’s director is warning that no part of Jamaica is likely be spared Melissa’s deadly combination of rapid intensification and snail-paced advance.
Evan Thompson also said the rapid strengthening was notable:
That is something that would not always happen, and this is usually indicative of the kind of warm waters that we’re experiencing that we believe is somewhat related to climate change.
AI-generated videos have been clogging social media feeds as Hurricane Melissa heads towards Jamaica, diverting attention from critical safety information about the storm.
Agence France-Presse reports it has surfaced dozens of fakes, most bearing watermarks for OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora. The videos depicted a range of fabricated scenarios, from dramatic newscasts and shots of severe flooding to images of sharks in the water as well as poignant scenes of human suffering.
Others appeared to show locals – often voiced with strong Jamaican accents that seemed aimed at reinforcing stereotypes – partying, boating, jet skiing, swimming or otherwise minimising the threat of what forecasters have warned could be the island’s most violent weather on record.
Jamaica’s information minister, Senator Dana Morris Dixon, said she and other ministers were jointly taking part in a Monday press conference to give “correct information” about the approaching monster storm.
Dixon said:
I am in so many WhatsApp groups, and I see all of these videos coming. Many of them are fake. And so we urge you to please listen to the official channels.
More reporting here from Natricia Duncan and Anthony Lugg speaking to people in Jamaica already affected by Hurricane Melissa before it makes landfall.
Farmer Leslie Burton, who also lives in Portland, has been without power.
“Some of the little things in my refrigerator I have to dispose of, and my neighbours are in the same problem,” he told the Guardian, also saying he was concerned about his animals.
“I tried to put some zinc over them but the breeze blew them away,” he said, adding that he had to find a way to protect them, because they were his livelihood.
I do all the preparations even for my house but now I just have to hope for the best.
A fellow resident, shop-owner Maria Douglas, is also without electricity. “My ice-cream is melting. I have to be giving them away as well as drinks,” she said. “The meat is still frozen but I’m not sure how long those will last, so it’s gonna be a big loss.
We didn’t expect the electricity to go off so early otherwise we could have been better organised.
If the hurricane doesn’t reach here yet and we are in this situation, I don’t know what’s going to happen when it actually reaches.
The Guardian’s Natricia Duncan and Anthony Lugg, who are on the ground in Jamaica, report:
Residents across the country say they are scared as updates predict worst-case scenarios and the effects of the storm begin to be felt, even before it lands in Jamaica.
Desrick Kenton, a resident from Portland in the north-east coast, said the rattling of his zinc roof convinced him to head to a shelter.
Speaking to the Guardian from inside the shelter, he said:
When I heard my zinc rattling in the night, I said ‘in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth’, not another minute, and I grabbed my suitcase and say I’m heading to the Manchioneal primary school shelter.
Asked why he thinks there are people in the community who are refusing to move, he said:
The spirit of God has to touch some of the people before they move. But I tell them despite the fact you may have a concrete structure, it doesn’t matter, if you are living in a low-lying area, sort out yourself and move out to the best shelter.
The hurricane’s rapid intensification is linked to the climate crisis
Oliver Milman
The extraordinary intensification of Hurricane Melissa, set to be one of the strongest storms to ever hit Jamaica, is probably a symptom of the rapid heating of the world’s oceans, scientists have said.
Scientists say this is the fourth storm in the Atlantic this year to undergo rapid intensification of its wind speed and power. This sort of intensification has been linked to the human-caused climate crisis, which is causing oceans to become hotter.
“That part of the Atlantic is extremely warm right now – around 30C [86F], which is 2 to 3C above normal,” said Akshay Deoras, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, in the United Kingdom. “And it’s not just the surface. The deeper layers of the ocean are also unusually warm, providing a vast reservoir of energy for the storm.”
Last year, the world’s oceans were the warmest on record, continuing a recent trend of record-breaking marine heat. Climate Central, a climate non-profit, has said that the extra heat in the Atlantic has been made about 700 times more likely due to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and other human activities.
“Climate change is fundamentally changing our weather,” said Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist at Climate Central, a US-based research group.
“It does not mean that every single tropical cyclone is going to go through rapid or super-rapid intensification. However, in our warmer world, it will continue to increase the likelihood of storms going through rapid and super-rapid intensification,” she added.
A 2023 study had found that Atlantic hurricanes are now more than twice as likely as before to intensify rapidly from minor storms to powerful and catastrophic events.
Jamaicans take shelter as Hurricane Melissa turns toward Jamaica’s south coast
The Guardian’s Natricia Duncan and Anthony Lugg in Jamaica report:
Jamaicans have started to take shelter from Hurricane Melissa as high winds topple trees and cause power cuts ahead of the category 5 storm making landfall on Tuesday.
The slow-moving giant, the strongest hurricane to hit the island since records began in 1851, is increasing in intensity and forecast to linger over the island. Authorities fear it will unleash catastrophic flooding, landslides and extensive infrastructure damage.
In the south-western parish of St Elizabeth, winds are already becoming ferocious, with one tree falling on to electricity poles and knocking out power.
The parish also borne the brunt of Hurricane Beryl, which caused historic levels of destruction in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Jamaica last year. Some people say they have only recently completed work on their properties after Beryl.
The director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica, Evan Thompson, has been warning that no part of the island is likely be spared Melissa’s deadly combination of rapid intensification and snail-paced advance.
“If it continues as projected in terms of the turn toward the island, we should therefore on Tuesday look for the hurricane force winds starting to impact southern coastal areas and then gradually spreading as the system moves closer to the coastline,” he said
The employees at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) – who are forecasting and modeling Melissa’s path – are currently not being paid amid the US government shutdown.
Although the National Weather Service – which includes the NHC – serve “critical functions” per the commerce department, and will continue to operate at full capacity during the shutdown, the agency’s employees will not receive paychecks until the shutdown is over.
Jamaica PM warns of ‘significant’ impact of hurricane
Jamaica’s prime minister Andrew Holnes said he doesn’t believe that “any infrastructure within this region that could withstand a Category 5 storm, so there could be significant dislocation.”
In an interview with CNN, he said: “I urge all Jamaicans and people who are friendly well-wishers of Jamaica, to continue to pray that this hurricane does not hit us directly.”
Hurricane Melissa has begun its long anticipated slow turn towards the north, and is positioning itself for a direct hit on Jamaica’s south coast early on Tuesday, the director of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has said in a Monday afternoon update.
Dr Mike Brennan said the slow-moving storm was about 140 miles south west of Kingston, Jamaica, at 5pm ET, and crawling towards the north west at about 3mph.
“Earlier today [it] was moving west, so we’re starting to see that turn to the north, and then the north northeast,” he said in a video briefing on YouTube.
“It’s going to bring the center of Melissa to the south coast of Jamaica early Tuesday morning. We’re expecting destructive winds in the eye wall of Melissa as it makes landfall and moves across the island, so we can have complete damage, destruction of shelters, homes and buildings in the path of that eye wall, not just along the coast, but in areas of high terrain across the central part of the island.”
Brennan said he expected nine to 13 feet of storm surge inundation, “destructive wave action along the coast” to beyond Kingston, and the potential for up to 30 inches of rain.
“Everyone in Jamaica needs to be in their safe place now to ride out the storm all the way through tomorrow,” he said.
Despite funding cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the ongoing government shutdown, the NHC has promised to maintain a full operation during the storm, including regular website updates, video briefings such as the one Brennan just gave, and regular appearances on television and radio networks to keep people informed.
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