The fear is that as much as 102 centimetres of rain could be dumped on Jamaica within a matter of hours, leading to flash flooding, rivers bursting their banks and mudslides.

Hurricane Melissa began lashing Jamaica with violent gusts on Monday (October 27) as the U.S. National Hurricane Center upgraded it to a Category 5 storm packing sustained winds of 165 mph, the larges...

'This can become a true humanitarian crisis very quickly, and there is likely going to be the need for a lot of international support,' Porter said in a phone interview.