Melissa rapidly intensified going into Sunday morning and is now a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds. The US National Hurricane Center expects it to strengthen into a rare Category 5 hurricane on Sunday night or early Monday.

The slow-moving Melissa strengthened into a major Category 3 hurricane late Saturday as it threatened catastrophic flooding in the northern Caribbean.

Parts of the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica could pick up over 12 inches of additional rainfall through next week.