A strengthening Melissa grew into a Category 4 hurricane Sunday and U.S. forecasters said it could reach Category 5 status, unleashing torrential rain and threatening to cause catastrophic flooding in the northern Caribbean, including Haiti and Jamaica,

The U.S. National Hurricane Center added that Melissa is expected to move near or over Jamaica as a major hurricane early Tuesday, then reach Cuba Tuesday night, and head across the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday.

Melissa was centered about 115 miles (185 kilometers) south-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 295 miles (475 kilometers) south-southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba, on Sunday night.

It had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph) and was moving west at 5 mph (7 kph), the hurricane center said.

Melissa was expected to drop rains of up to 30 inches (760 millimeters) on Jamaica and southern Hispaniola — Haiti and the Dominican Republic — according to the hurricane center. Some areas may see as much as 40 inches (1,010 millimeters) of rain.

It also warned that extensive damage to infrastructure, power and communication outages, and the isolation of communities in Jamaica were to be expected.

Melissa should be near or over Cuba by late Tuesday, where it could bring up to 12 inches (300 millimeters) of rain, before moving toward the Bahamas later Wednesday.

The Cuban government issued a hurricane warning for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, and Holguin.

It also sent a tropical storm warning to the province of Las Tunas.