People in Jamaica are bracing for the impact of Hurricane Melissa, which is forecast to unleash destructive winds and bring catastrophic flooding to the Caribbean nation in the coming hours.
Melissa was upgraded to a category five hurricane - the maximum strength - early on Monday, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The authorities fear that Melissa, which has already been blamed for the deaths of four people on the island of Hispaniola, could become the strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica.
The Jamaican government has ordered evacuations for parts of the capital, Kingston, and the entire island has been classed as threatened.
An update from the NHC at 09:00 GMT said that Melissa was about 130 miles (209 km) south-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica.
It has maximum sustained wind speeds of 160 mph (260 km/h) and could strengthen further in the next 12 to 24 hours, forecasters warned.
According to the NHC, 40 inches of rain (100 cm) are possible in parts of Jamaica over the next four days.
Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness has ordered the immediate evacuation of several vulnerable communities across the island, urging residents to seek shelter in safer areas as officials activated all 881 shelters.
At least three people are known to have died and hundreds of homes have been flooded in Haiti, while rainfall from Melissa has already affected the Dominican Republic.
