The National Hurricane Center warned on Saturday, “Melissa is still expected to make landfall in Jamaica as an upper-end Category 4 hurricane, which could be the strongest direct landfall for the island since tropical cyclone record keeping has been made in the Atlantic Basin.”
While Melissa could make landfall as a high-end Category 4 storm or even a Category 5, the practical difference between the two is minimal.
There will be catastrophic winds, rainfall, mudslides and impacts from Melissa, regardless of whether the storm strikes as a Category 4 or 5.
Anyone who did not leave Jamaica now cannot.. the window has closed..
Just look at this nightmare as it spins..
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Earlier Sunday, Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie urged residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas to evacuate immediately.
Speaking ahead of the storm, he warned that many communities may not survive the expected flooding. “It is going to be impossible for us, after all the attempts that we have been making…for us to say to our first responders ‘go out and risk your life,’” McKenzie said.
We are praying and hoping.. but we are fearing we will see some really awful news events coming out of Jamaica in the next several hours and upcoming days and weeks..
Strong wording from the National Hurricane Center for Jamaica ahead of Hurricane Melissa:
“Do not venture out of your safe shelter. Catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding and numerous landslides are likely today through Tuesday. Destructive winds, especially in the mountains, will begin by this evening, leading to extensive infrastructural damage, long-lasting power and communication outages, and isolated communities. Life-threatening storm surge and damaging waves are expected along the southern coast through Tuesday.”
In just 18 hours Melissa has rapidly intensified from a 70 MPH Tropical Storm to a 140 MPH Cat. 4 hurricane–at least at the time this is written. It is undoubtedly going to zoom to a Cat. 5 before landfall in Jamaica Tuesday morning.
It is also being predicted that it will be the worst Jamaica has ever experienced..
It would appear that the worst of the fearful predictions are coming true..
Sustained winds of 170+ and gust of 200+ MPH are possible at maximum if it continues at this rate. The highest sustained wind speed ever recorded in the Atlantic basin was 190 MPH from Hurricane Allen in 1980.
Watching this storm in motion is frightening..
Hurricane Melissa has explosively intensified from a Category 1 to Category 4 storm in just the last 12 hours.
This is the worst-case scenario for Jamaica, as Melissa could make landfall as a Category 5 storm early Tuesday morning. pic.twitter.com/9cq0RLnKib
October 25 1990: the day spooky Springfield history was made. The very first Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons aired on FOX. Back then it was simply called The Simpsons Halloween Special .. and it kicked off what would become one of the most beloved Halloween traditions on TV.
The episode pulled inspiration straight out of those eerie 1950s horror comics, and even began with a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer warning that it “might be too scary for children.” It also had that classic opening pan through a cemetery filled with funny tombstones .. it was a joke that became iconic before eventually disappearing in later years.
The stories themselves were told by Bart, Lisa, and Maggie in the family’s treehouse: three twisted tales that set the tone for decades to come. First, a haunted house riffing on The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist. Then came the debut of Kang and Kodos, those slimy alien siblings who abduct the Simpsons in a darkly comic “To Serve Man” parody. Finally, the show closed with one of the greatest Simpsons segments ever made, a dramatic retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” featuring the voice of the legendary James Earl Jones.
And just like that, a tradition was born. Now, all of Treehouse of Horror episodes later, it’s impossible to imagine Halloween without them. They hace become as much as tradition as anything else ..
What’s funny is how something meant to parody horror has now become its own kind of prophecy because every year it feels like The Simpsons somehow predicts the future. From political moments to pop culture events, people keep pointing back to old episodes saying, “See? They knew!” Maybe it’s coincidence. Maybe it’s satire gone psychic. Either way, that first Halloween special started something that’s still giving us chills — and predictions — 35 years later.
Halloween II picks up right where John Carpenter’s 1978 classic left off .. literally seconds after Michael Myers disappears into the darkness. The sequel takes us deeper into the same October 31st night, only now the screams echo through Haddonfield Memorial Hospital instead of quiet suburban streets.
The movie doesn’t wastes little time with new setups or character introductions; it just drops you right back into that same world, that same panic, that same cold air that hung over the end of the first film. You feel the chaos in the cold night.. even Mrs. Elrod screams as she makes a sandwich and finds blood–to this day we don’t know if her husband wanted mayo or mustard.
There a few interesting back stories to Halloween II almost .. one major point is that it almost didn’t happen the way we know it.
Carpenter himself didn’t originally plan a direct sequel and he envisioned the Halloween name turning into an anthology of different scary stories. He was YEARS ahead of his time on that thought process.
Moustapha Akkad sensed a hit… and it was time to capitalize ..
After the studio pushed for more Michael Myers Carpenter grudgingly agreed to write it. He’s even said he wrote the script with a six-pack of beer by his side, just trying to make sense of what would happen next. That might explain the surreal, dream-like pacing the film has. The movie is admittedly a little sloppy, but hazier, and far more violent than the first.
The mask was back. It was still the same Shatner face, but this time yellowed by chain smoking that Debra Hill subjected it to. Also the new inhabitant with a different face shape. Dick Warlock’s mug was rounder while Nick Castle was longer, hence the difference in appearance.
The new film also had more blood–Carpenter did that on purpose to match what audiences were then wanting. Akkad wasn’t overly happy with that because the TV broadcasts had to be tamed down ..
Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode became the face of the “final girl” trope. But in the sequel, she spends much of the movie confined to a hospital bed, drugged and traumatized, yet still somehow finds the strength to fight back. Donald Pleasence returns as Dr. Loomis, more unhinged than ever, shouting his famous lines about evil and destiny as he hunts Michael through sterile hallways. It is the hospital scenes that give the most feeling of the film. The fluorescent lights, the empty corridors, beeping heart monitors, all building to that fiery ending.
There were several points of Halloween 2 that feel like a docu-drama. You can feel the chaos and panic of the police in the movie–this is exactly how small town America police faced with a gory bloody scene of teenagers being killed would actually react. Now poor Ben Tramer got the brunt. Was it Loomis’ fault by the way? We never really get the chance to flesh that out..
To us, not only scarier but quite frankly better. Halloween II seems to get better with each passing year despite Carpenter still unwilling to embrace the face that he and Hill either accidentally or unwittingly created a classic.
Perhaps the only pet peeve is that this movie could have been renamed ALL SAINTS DAY since it mostly took place after Halloween, mostly on November 1 if you think about the continuity.
It’s often overshadowed by the original, but Halloween II deserves more credit. It’s the movie that closed the story of Laurie and Michael (at least until later recreations), expanded the mythology, and gave us the twist that Laurie was his sister .. love it or hate it, it was a plot line that shaped the franchise for decades.
When Halloween ENDS came out, fans watched.. and never watched again. But they loved the opening 7 minutes that herald back to the original night he came home. There is lure in a way to what Michael Myers did in the immediate aftermath to Loomis’ six shots.
While ENDS gives us a perspective of a movie that Carpenter never made, we still love the one he did: Halloween II is better than Halloween 1.
