Hurricane Melissa, already a major category 4 storm, gathered steam Sunday as it took aim at Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean, with forecasters predicting catastrophic flooding and urging residents to seek shelter immediately.

Melissa has already been blamed for at least four deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic this week, as its outer bands brought heavy rains and landslides.

The storm is moving at a worryingly slow pace -- just three miles (six kilometers) an hour -- which has meteorologists concerned that it will dump punishing rains on countries in its path for far longer than a storm that passes by more quickly.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that Melissa was packing maximum winds of about 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour -- and would likely intensify

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