 Barrel is being called a very serious threat. Eric Blake, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, says right now the storm is a Category 5. We expect the storm to begin to lose some strength later today, but we still expect it to be a powerful hurricane when it affects Jamaica on Wednesday. At least four people have died after Barrel slammed ashore in the southeast Caribbean. Barrel, the second named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1st to November 30th.