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KINGSTON, Jamaica: Hurricane Melissa was strengthening rapidly late Saturday, threatening to become a major hurricane and cause catastrophic flooding in the northern Caribbean, including Haiti and Jamaica.
Melissa became a hurricane on Saturday, prompting US forecasters to issue a hurricane warning for Jamaica, saying it could reach the island as a major storm early next week. Forecasters warned that Melissa could reach Category 4.
“Life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides are expected in portions of southern Hispaniola and Jamaica into early next week,” the US National Hurricane Center said Saturday evening.
As of late Saturday, Melissa had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph , and was located about 130 miles  southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. It was also about 260 miles  west-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was moving westward at 3 mph .
The slow-moving storm was expected to drop torrential rain, up to 25 inches , on Jamaica, according to the hurricane center. Up to 35 inches  of rain could pound the Tiburon peninsula in southwestern Haiti.
The Cuban government on Saturday afternoon issued a hurricane watch for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin.
Storm’s slow
progress
The erratic and slow-moving storm has killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth person in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
“Unfortunately for places along the projected path of this storm, it is increasingly dire,” Jamie Rhome, the center’s deputy director, said earlier on Saturday. He said the storm will continue to move slowly for up to four days.
Melissa is forecast to hit eastern Cuba early Wednesday, where up to 12 inches  could fall in some areas.
Authorities in Jamaica said on Saturday that the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston will be closed at 8 p.m. local time. It did not say whether it will close the Sangster airport in Montego Bay, on the western side of the island.
More than 650 shelters were activated in Jamaica. Officials said warehouses across the island were well-stocked and thousands of food packages prepositioned for quick distribution if needed.
“I urge Jamaicans to take this weather threat seriously,” said Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness. “Take all measures to protect yourself.”
“Jamaica prep should be completed today. Melissa’s slow motion brings multi-day damaging winds plus heavy rainfall, catastrophic flash flooding, landslides, damage, long-duration power communication outages, isolation,” the center said.
River levels rise
Haitian authorities said three people had died as a consequence of the hurricane and another five were injured due to a collapsed wall. There were also reports of rising river levels, flooding and a bridge destroyed due to breached riverbanks in Sainte-Suzanne, in the northeast.
“The storm is causing a lot of concern with the way it’s moving,” said Ronald Délice, a Haitian department director of civil protection, as local authorities organized lines to distribute food kits. Many residents are still reluctant to leave their homes.
The storm has damaged nearly 200 homes in the Dominican Republic and knocked out water supply systems, affecting more than half a million customers. It also downed trees and traffic lights, unleashed a couple of small landslides and left more than two dozen communities isolated by floodwaters.
The Bahamas Department of Meteorology said Melissa could bring tropical storm or hurricane conditions to islands in the Southeast and Central Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands by early next week.
Melissa is the 13th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had predicted an above-normal season with 13 to 18 named storms.

ABIDJAN: Voting ended Saturday in Ivory Coast for a new president, with incumbent Alassane Ouattara expected to win a fourth term against a divided opposition further hobbled by the barring of two leading candidates.
One senior opposition figure has already dismissed the vote as “electoral robbery” and turnout was low in parts of the country’s south and west, where the opposition is popular.
“I didn’t vote,” said 26-year-old student Olivier in the working-class Blockhaus district of Abidjan. “My candidate was barred.”
On Saturday, a 13-year-old boy was killed by a shot fired from a public transport vehicle in the center-west town of Gregbeu, security sources told AFP. It was the fifth death this month during the election period.

Voting equipment stolen

Ouattara, 83, has wielded power in the world’s top cocoa producer since 2011, when the country began reasserting itself as a west African economic powerhouse.
Nearly nine million Ivorians were eligible to vote in the polls, which closed at 6:00 p.m. (1800 GMT), choosing between five contenders.
Turnout was expected to be a key factor. Polling stations in the economic capital Abidjan visited by AFP in the afternoon were not crowded but there were many more voters in the second city Bouake, a Ouattara stronghold.
“It’s the first time that I’m voting and I’m happy to be able to express my choice,” said Ben Kone, a young voter in Bouake, where AFP reporters saw long queues to vote.

Roads were cut off in some parts of the country’s south and west and vote observers reported the theft of election materials there.
That was particularly the case in Mama, the birthplace of former president Laurent Gbagbo, one of those barred from running for the presidency, said observers.
In Lopou, a town of some 9,000 people west of Abidjan, the mood was tense after police fired tear gas to quell protests against Ouattara before election day.
“There will be no voting here in Lopou,” an elderly man said.
“Ouattara’s candidacy is unconstitutional,” added a youth.
Many voting centers in pro-opposition areas were nearly empty, AFP reporters said.

Banned rallies 

Ouattara’s leading rivals — Gbagbo and Credit Suisse ex-CEO Tidjane Thiam — were both barred from standing, Gbagbo for a criminal conviction and Thiam for acquiring French nationality.
With the opposition calling for protests and unrest turning deadly in recent days, the government slapped a night-time curfew in some areas and deployed 44,000 security forces.
A policeman was among those who died in political unrest in recent weeks. On Monday, an independent electoral commission building was torched.
The government has responded by banning demonstrations, and the courts have sentenced several dozen people to three-year jail terms for disturbing the peace.
Security forces were deployed across the country of 30 million, especially in former opposition strongholds in the south and west.
Authorities say they want to avoid a repeat of unrest surrounding the 2020 presidential election, in which 85 people died.

‘Electoral robbery’ 

After being re-elected in 2015 with 83 percent of the vote, Ouattara had promised not to run again given a two-term presidential limit.
But when his chosen successor, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died suddenly, Ouattara changed his mind, buoyed by a revision of the constitution that he argued reset his number of terms to zero.
On Wednesday, former president Gbagbo condemned the poll as a “civilian coup d’etat” and “electoral robbery.”
“Those who could have won have been eliminated. I do not accept this,” he said.
None of the four rival candidates represents an established party, nor do they have the reach of Ouattara’s RHDP.
Ouattara came to power following the 2010-2011 presidential clash between him and Gbagbo, which cost more than 3,000 lives among their supporters.
Ouattara’s government touts several years of strong economic growth and general security, despite jihadist threats on Ivory Coast’s borders.
Critics say this growth has only benefitted a small portion of the population and has been accompanied by a spiralling cost of living.