The Government of Jamaica has prepared shelters for victims of Hurricane Melissa

Hurricane Melissa, the fifth and highest category, has struck southwestern Jamaica. As the US National Hurricane Monitoring Center reported on October 28, it became one of the strongest storms in the Atlantic in the entire history of observations. According to unconfirmed reports, three people were killed.

Hurricane Melissa of the fifth category has struck Jamaica. One of the strongest hurricanes in the Atlantic basin for all time of observations," the center said in a statement.

"A hurricane is on its way to us, probably seven hundred meters from us. Vetrina is already scary. The hurricane will come from the other side — from the left side of the island — and it is reported to pass diagonally, to demolish everything that it wants to demolish <...>. But the Jamaicans are not discouraged at all," Denis, a local resident, told Izvestia.

According to him, the Jamaican government has already prepared shelters for people who have nowhere to hide. According to the man, not only locals, but also tourists were at risk.

Hurricane Melissa surpassed Hurricane Katrina in intensity, which became one of the most devastating natural disasters in the history of the United States, the Washington Post reports.

It is noted that Melissa has reached the highest category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale with a maximum sustained wind speed of up to 280 km/h.

Earlier, on October 26, it was reported that the speed of tropical storm Melissa increased to 150 km/h, which makes it possible to classify it as a hurricane of the first category. It is also reported that the hurricane may threaten the island state of Jamaica, the southwestern part of the Republic of Haiti, the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin.

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