There is nowhere that will escape the wrath of this storm,” said Evan Thompson, the principal director of Jamaica’s Meteorological Service.

Melissa, with maximum winds of 70 mph and stronger gusts, should attain hurricane status later Oct. 25 and become a major hurricane by Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Saturday morning. A tropical storm becomes a hurricane when its winds reach 74 mph.

The storm was forecast to dump up to 25 inches of rain over Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica as it continues to strengthen this weekend.

The storm is forecast to become a major hurricane by the end of the weekend, with life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding in Jamaica and Southern Hispaniola, an advisory from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Saturday afternoon.

Hurricane Melissa formed Saturday in the Caribbean forecast to rapidly intensify close to a Category 5 storm, but moving slowly while dumping “catastrophic” amounts of rain on islands

Melissa intensified Saturday afternoon into a Category 1 hurricane. It will continue to strengthen before making landfall as a Major Category 4 hurricane in Jamaica on Tuesday. The storm will drop two to three feet of rain on the island, creating catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding and landslides.

Melissa increased into a near hurricane and is forecast to rapidly intensify into a possible Category 5 through portions of southern Hispaniola and Jamaica.

Melissa is projected to approach Jamaica this weekend, make landfall by early next week, and be near or over eastern Cuba by the middle of next week.