Hurricane Matthew has surged in power to become the Caribbean's first major hurricane in four years as it moves towards Jamaica and Cuba with winds of up to 260km/h powerful enough to wreck houses, forecasters say.
Matthew was about 710km southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) designated it as a Category 5, the strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.
The strongest hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean since Felix in 2007 was forecast to make landfall as a major storm on Monday on Jamaica's palm-fringed southern coast, home to the capital and Jamaica's only oil refinery. It could affect the island's main tourist areas such as Montego Bay in the north.
"The government is on high alert," said Robert Morgan, Director of Communications at the prime minister's office.
"We hope that the hurricane does not hit us, but if it does hit us, we are trying our very best to ensure that we are in the best possible place."
Local disaster co-ordinators, police and military have been put on standby and shelters are being opened throughout the island, Morgan said.
Despite the sunny weather and a few scattered clouds, many Kingstonians were stocking up on water and food on Friday in preparation.
Jamaica was hard hit by hurricane Gilbert in 1988, and the last major hurricane in the region was Sandy, in 2012. Matthew could be the most powerful storm to cross the island since records began, meteorologist Eric Holthaus said on Twitter."
The storm killed one person in St Vincent and the Grenadines earlier in the week.
