A storm ‘the likes of which we have never seen’published at 05:04 GMT
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Jamaica has many hills, which raises the risk of landslides
The Jamaican government has done everything it can to prepare for a storm “the likes of which we have never seen”, the country’s Information Minister, Dana Morris Dixon, told Shaun Ley on BBC’s Newshour.
With up to 40 inches of rain possible in parts of the island nation, Dixon says those are “numbers we’ve never seen in Jamaica in terms of rainfall”.
And on top of that, Dixon added, October is already the country’s rainy month.
“The ground is already very saturated. And then to take that much rain means we’re going to have flooding, extensive flooding and landslides in the mountainous areas.”
She said the last hurricane to directly hit Jamaica was 37 years ago, and urged people to take this one seriously.
Jamaica has 881 active shelters, and all of them are free, she added.
