Hurricane Melissa has developed into a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour and is expected to strengthen as it heads towards Jamaica.

Melissa is about 180km south of Kingston and expected to make landfall in Jamaica on Monday night or Tuesday morning local time (Tuesday afternoon or overnight AEDT), before hitting southeastern Cuba, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Catastrophic floods, landslides and storm surges are expected in the region.

During a press conference in Kingston on Sunday, authorities said both international airports are closed and 881 shelters have been activated around the nation.

"Many of these communities will not survive the flooding," Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government, said at the press confer

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