Hurricane Melissa was cutting a deadly path through the Caribbean on Sunday, strengthening into a Category 3 storm as it crawled along a worryingly slow course toward Jamaica and the island of Hispaniola.

Melissa has already been blamed for three deaths in Haiti this week, as its outer bands brought heavy rains and landslides to the impoverished nation.

In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, a 79-year-old man was found dead after being swept away in a stream, local officials said Saturday. A 13-year-old boy was missing.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in the early hours of Sunday that Melissa was a Category 3 hurricane, packing winds of 120 miles (193 kilometers) per hour.

The storm was expected to set off "life-threatening and catastro

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