At least 3 people have been killed in Haiti as Tropical Storm Melissa causes devastating flooding in the Caribbean, and meteorologists warn the storm could become a Category 4 hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami warned of "life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides" throughout the weekend in Jamaica and southern Hispaniola, the island that comprises Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It will bring up to 14 inches of rain in the coming days and potentially the same amount to Jamaica, the NHC said.
11 million people are facing flood watches today from northern Oklahoma to central Texas. Two of the cities included in the watches are Oklahoma City and Dallas.
The severe storm and flood risk will shift east into southeastern Texas and western Louisiana on Saturday.
"The rainfall is a huge risk with the storm," said Michael Brennan, director of the NHC. "Rainfall has historically been the biggest cause of loss of life of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Caribbean."
In an 11 a.m. ET update on Friday, the NHC said the storm is drifting east-southeastward at 2 MPH. At the time of the update, the storm was 215 miles south-east of Kingston, the Jamaican capital, and 250 miles south-west of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.
A hurricane watch is in place, and a tropical storm warning is in place for Jamaica and the southwestern peninsula of Haiti.
The Haitian Civil Protection Agency said that two people died Thursday in a landslide in Fontamara, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. Earlier, the agency said a man in his 70s was killed by a falling tree in the southern coastal town of Marigot, while five people were injured in the Artibonite region.
Already, dozens of water supply systems are offline in the Dominican Republic, affecting more than 500,000 customers, with downed trees and traffic lights causing disruption.
“This is an event that we should be following minute by minute,” said Juan Manuel Méndez García, emergency operations director in the Dominican Republic.
The storm is due to drift west on Saturday and could move on to, or just south of, Jamaica early next week.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 and Melissa is the 13th named storm of the season so far.
