Melissa is now a category 3 hurricane and is expected to rapidly intensify over the next 24 hours, threatening catastrophic flooding in the northern Caribbean, including Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba.

At 2pm Sunday AEDT, the hurricane was located about 450 kilometres from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, packing maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour.

The US Hurricane Centre said it was category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale and could make category 4. The slow-moving and erratic storm was expected to be a major hurricane when it makes landfall early this week.

“Life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides are expected in portions of southern Hispaniola and Jamaica into early next week,” the centre said in a statement.

Hurricane Melissa has killed at least

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