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Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean Sea on September 29. Picture: AFP / NOAA / HO
THE nations of the Caribbean are on high alert after Hurricane Matthew strengthened to a category five storm, the first of its strength in more than nine years.
Hurricane Matthew is roaring across the Caribbean Sea on a course that puts Jamaica, as well as parts of Haiti and Cuba, in the path of its potentially devastating 260km/h winds and rain.
The storm has stunned meterologists, accelerating from nothing to category 5 in just 36 hours. It’s unusual behaviour makes it difficult to predict, with some warning it could continue through the Carribean to move up the US east cost.
The US National Hurricane Center called it the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Felix in 2007, and said Matthew will be approaching Jamaica late Monday morning Australian time. It is expected to reach the eastern part of the island later in the day.
Jamaicans began clearing out store shelves as they stocked up emergency supplies and Prime Minister Andrew Holness last night called an urgent meeting of Parliament to discuss preparations for the storm.
“I left work to pick up a few items, candles, tin stuff, bread,†41-year-old Angella Wage said at a crowded store in the Half Way Tree area of the capital, Kingston. “We can never be too careful.â€
Evan Thompson, director of Jamaica’s National Meteorological Service, said the first effects of the storm may be felt as early as this afternoon.
“We do consider it serious,†Thompson said. “We are all on high alert.â€
Jamaicans are accustomed to intense tropical weather but Hurricane Matthew looked particularly threatening. With wind speeds of 260km/h, it was more powerful than Hurricane Gilbert, which made landfall on the island in September 1988 and was the most destructive storm in the country’s modern history.
“Hurricane Matthew could rival or possibly exceed Gilbert if the core of the strongest winds does actually move over Jamaica,†said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the hurricane centre in Miami. “There is no certainty of that at this point.†Matthew was expected to bring heavy rainfall especially to the eastern tip and higher elevations, which could trigger flooding and landslides, Thompson said.
Forecasters said rainfall totals could reach 25 to 38 centimetres with isolated maximum amounts of 63 centimetres in Jamaica and southwestern Haiti.
Kingston is in the southeastern corner of Jamaica and is expected to experience flooding. The government issued a hurricane watch last night, and a tropical storm watch was issued for Haiti’s southwest coast form the southern border it shares with the Dominican Republic to the capital of Port-au-Prince.
As of 11pm USEDT (1pm AEST), the storm was centred about 710 kilometres southeast of Kingston. It was moving west at 11km/h.
Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 55 kilometres from the centre and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 315 kilometres.
It brought extremely high tides, storm surge and heavy rain to Colombia, prompting authorities to declare an alert as local TV broadcast images of cars and tree trunks surging though flooded streets in coastal areas. Local media in La Guajira province reported that one person died in flooding.
Matthew caused at least one death when it entered the Caribbean on Wednesday, with officials in St. Vincent reporting a 16-year-old boy was crushed by a boulder as he tried to clear a blocked drain.