Jamaica is expected to be in the storm's eyewall, which refers to the band of dense clouds surrounding the eye of the hurricane. The eyewall generally produces the fiercest winds and heaviest rainfall, according to Deanna Hence, a professor of climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Melissa is a deadly Category 5 hurricane and is expected to become to worst hurricane in Jamaica's history before it travels north to Cuba.

The news “underscores the profound ecological toll that Hurricane Melissa will have on Jamaica’s biodiversity,” said one expert on the island.

A couple from the Darboy area is bracing for Hurricane Melissa while vacationing in Ocho Rios, Jamaica for their anniversary. John and Heather Hoffman were planning to fly home on6, Sunday, but the airport shut down less than three hours before their flight due to the approaching Category 5 storm.

FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross provides the latest analysis on Category 5 Hurricane Melissa. With just hours before an expected catastrophic landfall, Norcross said flooding rain is among the biggest concerns as it falls over the mountains and takes days to drain.

"Catastrophic winds in the eyewall have the potential to cause total structural failure especially in higher elevation areas tonight and early Tuesday."

"It is more than kind of distressing because you don't know when and you don't know how," said Ewan Simpson, who lives in Jamaica.