'Many communities will not survive the flooding,' official says as Hurricane Melissa barrels towards Jamaica

The Guardian LIVE

My colleagues Natricia Duncan and Anthony Lugg have some details about the advice officials are giving to residents in Jamaica in anticipation of Melissa and explain why this hurricane is expected to be so powerful.

Here is an extract from their story, which was written with the help of news agency reporting:

During a press conference in Kingston on Sunday, Jamaican authorities said both international airports were closed and 881 shelters had been activated.

“Many of these communities will not survive the flooding,” said Desmond McKenzie, the minister of local government. “Kingston is extremely low. No community in Kingston is immune.”

Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, later ordered mandatory evacuation orders for Port Royal in Kingston and six other vulnerable areas across the country including Old Harbour Bay …

The combination of rapid intensification and snail-paced advancement is a recipe for a catastrophic, record-breaking natural disaster, experts said.

In its increasingly grim updates, the hurricane centre warned that extensive damage to infrastructure, power and communication outages and the isolation of communities in Jamaica were to be expected.

Some areas in eastern Jamaica could see up to 40 inches (1 metre) of rain while western Haiti could get 16 inches (40 centimetres), according to the hurricane centre.

“Catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides are likely,” it warned.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered in seven flood-prone communities in Jamaica, with buses ferrying people to safe shelter.

The slow-moving storm has killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth person in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.

“I want to urge Jamaicans to take this seriously,” said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council.

“Do not gamble with Melissa. It’s not a safe bet.”