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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe hurricane has already claimed seven lives across the Caribbean \u2014 three in Jamaica, three in Haiti, and one in the Dominican Republic. Jamaican authorities said the local deaths occurred during storm preparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite evacuation orders, many residents have chosen to stay behind. \u201cI am not moving. I don\u2019t believe I can run from death,\u201d said Roy Brown, a plumber in Port Royal, citing poor conditions in government shelters. Fisherwoman Jennifer Ramdial echoed the sentiment: \u201cI just don\u2019t want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie said only 133 of the island\u2019s 880 designated shelters were occupied as of Monday evening. \u201cThey should be seeing people now,\u201d he said, urging residents to act quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In St. Elizabeth\u2019s Flagaman farming community, store owner Enrico Coke opened his doors to neighbors seeking refuge. \u201cI\u2019m concerned about farmers. The fishermen will be suffering after this,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll need help as soon as possible, especially water for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melissa is forecast to dump up to 40 inches (one meter) of rain across Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. A storm surge of up to 13 feet (4 meters) is expected along Jamaica\u2019s southern coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hurricane\u2019s intensity has drawn comparisons to past disasters like Hurricane Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Climate scientists say human-driven global warming is fueling the frequency and severity of such storms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHuman-caused climate change is making all of the worst aspects of Hurricane Melissa even worse,\u201d said Daniel Gilford, a climate scientist. Meteorologist Kerry Emanuel added, \u201cWater kills a lot more people than wind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melissa is expected to cross eastern Cuba late Tuesday after passing over Jamaica. The last major hurricane to strike the island was Beryl in July 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holness urged Jamaicans to prioritize safety. \u201cYou have been warned,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s now up to you to use that information to make the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, Jamaica (FN) \u2014 Jamaican officials urged residents to evacuate low-lying areas and seek shelter Monday as Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm, crawled toward the island with maximum sustained winds of 175 miles per hour. Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned that the storm could bring \u201cmassive devastation,\u201d particularly to Jamaica\u2019s western region, where infrastructure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":22500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Volunteers-assemble-relief-packages-for-Hurricane-Melissa-at-the-Global-Empowerment-Mission-headquarters-in-Miami-Florida.jpeg?fit=786%2C486&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22474"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22501,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22474\/revisions\/22501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-286.png?fit=512%2C341&ssl=1\")
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