Hurricane Melissa on Monday intensified into a Category 5 storm, the most powerful of hurricanes, while continuing to drop torrents of “catastrophic” rain across the Caribbean, the National Hurricane Center said.

As of the NHC’s 5 a.m. advisory, Melissa had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph located about 130 miles south-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica and 315 miles south-southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba moving west at 3 mph.

“I want to urge Jamaicans to take this seriously,” said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of the island’s Disaster Risk Management Council. “Do not gamble with Melissa. It’s not a safe bet.”

The system could drop 15-30 more inches by Wednesday with some areas getting as much as 40 inches on both Jamaica and southern Hispaniola.

Hurricane Melissa forecast path as of 5

See Full Page