Hurricane Melissa approaches Jamaica
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Melissa underwent extreme rapid intensification, strengthening to a rare Category 5 with winds of 175 mph and stronger gusts, making it the strongest storm on the planet this year. Follow for live updates.
There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said ahead of the storm's landfall.
Hurricane Melissa is now a Category 5 storm, capable of dumping catastrophic rainfall in addition to the powerful winds it's packing. The monster storm has begun to impact Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti, and it's expected to cause life-threatening problems for days during its slow crawl through the Caribbean.
Names are retired if they are so deadly or costly that the future use of the name would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity, NOAA said.
KINGSTON (Reuters) -At least 19 people died as a result from Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, the country's information minister told Reuters, bringing the total confirmed death toll from the storm to at least 44.