![\"People](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/ap25301700635381.jpg?c=original&q=w_1280,c_fill\/f_avif\")
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\n Powerful Hurricane Melissa continues to lose some strength, but remains a very dangerous hurricane as it tracks over Jamaica and heads towards Cuba.\n <\/p>\n
\n So far, no deaths<\/a> directly linked to the storm have been reported in Jamaica since it made landfall earlier today, the country\u2019s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n Here\u2019s what you should know:\n <\/p>\n \n Melissa\u2019s path: Cuba is set to face Melissa\u2019s wrath next. The hurricane is forecast to make landfall<\/a> in southeastern Cuba overnight, likely a few hours after midnight, as either a Category 4 or a high-end Category 3 storm. Cuba is set to see<\/a> 20 to 30 inches of rainfall that could trigger life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides, 130 to 140 mph winds near its center at landfall and up to 12 feet of storm surge. Here\u2019s what to expect from the storm in other select cities<\/a> going forward.\n <\/p>\n \n Category 4: This afternoon, Melissa was declared a category 4 hurricane<\/a> with winds of 145 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.\n <\/p>\n \n Widespread destruction: Despite the hurricane\u2019s center moving just off land, its ferocious wind, torrential rain and storm surge are still slamming <\/a>Jamaica. Hundreds of thousands of people on the island are without power<\/a>, officials said, and \u201cclose to 15,000 Jamaicans\u201d are in emergency shelters. Extensive damage<\/a> is being reported across southwestern Jamaica, including in the parish of St. Elizabeth, an official from the country\u2019s disaster management body told CNN, with schools, homes, and hospitals affected by the hurricane. Also, some of Jamaica\u2019s main food-producing regions<\/a> are being \u201cbattered\u201d by Melissa, a World Food Programme (WFP) official told CNN Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n \n CNN Meteorologist Mary Gilbert, Taylor Ward, and CNN\u2019s Hira Humayun, Elise Hammond, Tori B. Powell, Billy Stockwell and Catherine Nicholls contributed reporting.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Powerful Hurricane Melissa continues to lose some strength, but remains a very dangerous hurricane as it tracks over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,98144,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-231264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hnk","10":"tag-tv","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}