Hurricane Melissa became a major hurricane late Saturday with catastrophic flash flooding and landslides in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

A fast developing storm was expected to bring “unprecedented” amounts of rain to several countries, meteorologists said.

Hurricane Melissa strengthened into a Category 4 storm on Saturday. It unleashed torrential rain and threatened to cause catastrophic flooding in the northern Caribbean, including Haiti and Jamaica, the U.

US forecasters issued a hurricane warning for Jamaica on Saturday, meaning winds of at least 74 mph were expect in the area within 36 hours.