Rebecca Herscher

That is way more water than the ground can absorb.

It will cause massive flooding.

Hurricanes happen every year in the Caribbean.

Jamaica has obviously been hit by lots of storms over the years.

This is just the first time a storm of this magnitude has hit the island head-on since modern records began.

But storms like this one are getting more likely.

You know, climate change makes large, powerful storms more common.

It also makes very rainy storms more likely.

So if you live in the Caribbean, you know,

Hurricane Central, you are more and more likely over the years to find yourself staring down a really scary hurricane like Melissa at some point in your life.

Category 5 hurricanes have extremely powerful winds, strong enough to knock down homes that are made of wood and rip off most roofs.

And Hurricane Melissa is also moving extremely slowly, which means it will linger over land, dumping huge amounts of rain.

The storm is expected to bring multiple feet of rain to some parts of Jamaica.

That's particularly dangerous because the island has hills and mountains.

When a large amount of rain falls in such an area, it can cause deadly flash flooding because the water picks up speed as it flows downhill.

Climate change makes large, rainy hurricanes like Melissa more likely.

Rebecca Herscher, NPR News.

Small businesses that rely on federal contracts, thousands of them across the country, have received stop work orders.

Thousands more who rely on federal workers as their customers are seeing their revenue dry up.