Hurricane Melissa is moving slowly. It reached the coast of Jamaica this afternoon after stalling out over the Caribbean Sea for the past two days. And yet, the winds that form Melissa are shockingly fast. At 10:00 this morning, the National Hurricane Center reported that maximum sustained winds had reached 185 miles an hour—surpassing those of any other storm this year, along with Hurricane Katrina.

That combination of high winds and creeping progress makes Melissa both unusual and unusually dangerous. Over the next day or so, the storm is on track to hammer Jamaica, eastern Cuba, and parts of the Bahamas with catastrophic flash flooding, destructive winds, and damaging waves. Jamaica’s prime minister has warned that the island’s infrastructure cannot withstand such a storm.

Like many o

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