Hurricane Matthew quickened as it began to reach the northern Caribbean, according to the latest data from the National Hurricane Center.

The storm began moving at a faster forward speed Tuesday evening as the center of the storm approached southwestern Haiti.

The storm’s latest track has led the government of the Bahamas to issue a hurricane warning for the Central Bahamas, including Long Island, Exuma, Rum Cay, San Salvador, and Cat Island, and a Hurricane Watch for the northwestern Bahamas, including the Abacos, Andros Island, Berry Islands, Bimini, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama Island, and New Providence.

That is in addition to already-issued hurricane warnings in Jamaica, Haiti, the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Granma, and Las Tunas and the southeastern Bahamas, including the Inaguas, Mayaguana, Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Cay, and Ragged Island.

The storm is set to move near eastern Cuba late Tuesday night and move near or over portions of the southeastern and central Bahamas Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Maximum sustained winds were at 140 mph late Tuesday, with higher gusts; hurricane force winds extend outward up to 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 185 miles.

“Matthew is a dangerous category 4 hurricane,” the National Hurricane Center said in its 48-hour outlook.

Hurricane conditions were expected to first reach Haiti tonight, eastern Cuba Tuesday, the southeastern Bahamas late Tuesday, and the central Bahamas on Wednesday.

Tropical storm conditions are expected in portions of Jamaica and along the southern coast of the Dominican Republic within the warning area soon.

That meant significant rainfall around the Caribbean region, with between 15 and 25 inches in southern Haiti and the southwestern Dominican Republic, and 40 inches in parts of Cuba and Haiti and parts of Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

That could lead to life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in areas including southern and northwestern Haiti, the southwestern Dominican Republic and eastern Cuba.

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It’s time for an urgent investment in the next generation of Caribbean travel and tourism leaders to elevate service standards within the region, according to Jerry Inzerillo, CEO of Forbes Travel Guide.

“We have the soul to do it– this region has soul and that is a bankable commodity, more than the beautiful turquoise waters,” he told the audience at the recent Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association Hospitality Industry Exchange Forum in Puerto Rico.

“Importing is not an excuse,” he said, underscoring the importance of training local workers. “It is our obligation to develop our own people and talent.”

Inzerillo, whose 50-year journey in the hospitality industry has taken him from busboy to chief executive, said tourism is “the single, great ambassador of humanity in the world because it celebrates all the stuff that’s in our soul.”

“It is not growing incrementally, it is exploding,” he said. “We are in the right place at the right time. What is going to happen in travel in the next five years is breathtaking.”

Inzerillo also spoke to the challenges of running a tourism entity today, citing low margins, increased competition, the development of human resources and a diversity of other issues.

— Dana Niland

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Hurricane Matthew continued to move northward on Sunday as hurricane warnings and watches remained in effect across the northern Caribbean and the Atlantic.

While the storm turned toward the north (from a northwest trajectory) on Sunday night, it retained its Category 4 strength.

Hurricane warnings remained in effect for Jamaica, Haiti and the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Granma, and Las Tunas.

Haiti’s fate was particularly concerning, with reports that the storm could be potentially “catastrophic” for parts of Haiti as it moved northward in the direction of the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.

Hurricane watches were also in effect for Camaguey, Cuba; the Southeastern Bahamas, including the Inaguas, Mayaguana, Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Cay, and Ragged Island; and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

A tropical storm warning remained in effect for the Dominican Republic, from Barahona westward toward the Haitian border.

Matthew’s sustained winds were blowing near 145mph with higher gusts.

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The Dominican Republic recently played host to a rather rare meeting — the Caribbean Conference of major Jewish organization Chabad.

The conference brought together the Rabbis of 12 Jewish congregations around the wider Caribbean region, including Rabbis from Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Cancun and Playa del Carmen, St. Maarten, Aruba, St. Barth, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Grenada and the local Rabbi in the Dominican Republic.

The group was joined by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, Chabad-Lubavitch HQ.

While the Caribbean once had a significant population of Jews in the colonial period, largely from the Iberian peninsula, for several centuries the region’s population dwindled.

In recent years, though, Chabad, which sends “shluchim” to re-cultivate Jewish communities around the world, has expanded in the Caribbean, also proving a boon for many Jewish visitors to the region.

The post Why 12 Rabbis Met in the Caribbean appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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Hurricane Matthew is threatening much of the northern Caribbean, including Jamaica and Haiti, according the latest information from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The Hurricane, which vacillated around a Category 4 strength on Saturday, led to a hurricane warning in effect for Jamaica and for Haiti, from the southern border with the Dominican Republic to Le Mole St. Nicholas. The storm had briefly reached a Category 5 strength before slowing slightly on Saturday afternoon.

A Hurricane Watch was also in effect for Haiti east of Le Mole St. Nicholas to the northern border with the Dominican Republic and for Cuba, from the province of Camaguey to the province of Guantanamo.

A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area. A hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area.

As of late Saturday, Matthew was expected to bring life-threatening rainfall to portions of Haiti.

The storm had already led to at least one death in the Caribbean on the island of St. Vincent as the storm first reached the wider Caribbean region.

Matthew is expected to remain a powerful hurricane through Monday, the Hurricane Center said, with maximum sustained winds near 150 mph with higher gusts.

It was the strongest of its kind in the Atlantic basin since Hurricane Felix in 2007 and could

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