Melissa lashes Jamaica with heavy winds, floods

Heavy floodwaters swept across southwestern Jamaica, winds tore roofs off buildings and boulders tumbled onto roads Tuesday as Hurricane Melissa came ashore as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

- BY JOHN MYERS JR. AND DÁNICA COTO

IN CUBA, a man hitches a ride Tuesday to a shelter before the hurricane arrives.

(YAMIL LAGE AFP/Getty Images)

Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council, urged people to seek shelter and stay indoors as the storm crosses the island.

“Jamaica, this is not the time to be brave,” he said.

The Jamaican government said it had done all it could to prepare as it warned of devastating damage from the strongest hurricane to hit the island since recordkeeping began 174 years ago.

“There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. “The question now is the speed of recovery. That's the challenge.”

Landslides, fallen trees and numerous power outages were reported as Melissa came ashore near New Hope, with officials cautioning that the cleanup and damage assessment could be slow. The storm is expected to slice diagonally across the island and head toward Cuba, where intermittent rain was falling.

Colin Bogle, a Mercy Corps advisor based near Kingston, said most families are sheltering in place despite the government ordering evacuations in flood-prone communities. He was sheltering with his grandmother in Portmore, where everything went dark earlier in the day after a loud explosion.

“The noise is relentless,” he said. “People are anxious and just trying to hold on until the storm passes.”

Massive wind damage is expected in Melissa’s core and Jamaica’s highest mountains could see gusts of up to 200 mph, said Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

“It’s going to be a very dangerous scenario,” he said, warning that there would be “total building failures.”