Hurricane Melissa has made landfall on Jamaica as the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean island since records were first kept 174 years ago. Melissa is a Category 5 storm with sustained wind speeds of 185 mph (295 kph).

The director of apostolates for a Jamaica-based religious community serving the poor in Kingston said Oct. 28 that the Category-5 Hurricane Melissa seems to be sparing Kingston the worst of its wrath. But he added that the storm was not yet finished and much remained unknown about the historic hurricane’s impact in the region.

Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica on Tuesday, prompting the prime minister to declare the country a disaster area, after the storm made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.

The Caribbean storm — among the most powerful in history, with 185 mph winds — is expected to bring flash-flooding and landslides as it slowly moves across the island and heads north toward Cuba.

NOAA trackers expect Hurricane Melissa to make catastrophic landfall in Jamaica Tuesday. How to watch live cam video updates, track spaghetti models and more.

A group of North Dakotans on vacation in Jamaica are taking shelter Monday night as Hurricane Melissa approaches.

The U.S. Air Force’s “Hurricane Hunters” flew through the storm on Oct. 27, gathering critical weather data for the National Hurricane Center.

For Rob Cuff and his wife Leah, their Jamaican honeymoon is coming to an uncertain end as Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean island in modern history, bears down. "I didn't sleep a lot last night as I kept an eye out to see if the storm was coming,