Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane -- one of the most powerful hurricane landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.

Hurricane Melissa, the world's most powerful storm this year, bears down on the Caribbean island.

"Today will be very difficult for tens of thousands, if not millions of people in Jamaica," IFRC's Necephor Mghendi said via video link from Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago.