Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica.
Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica after the storm made landfall on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.
After lashing Jamaica with dangerous winds and flooding rain, Melissa made a second landfall in Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday morning. Melissa then moved through the Bahamas, and next, on Thursday night, the storm will pass Bermuda as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane.
Hurricane Melissa is forecast to bring extreme, life-threatening storm surge to Jamaica when it strikes the island Monday into Tuesday.
The storm surge will decimate parts of Jamaica's southern coast, with water surging up to 13 feet above ground level.
Click here to read about how storm surge works and why it's so dangerous.
For Jamaica, there will likely be a "before Melissa" and "after Melissa," similar to the long-term impact of other historic hurricanes like Katrina, Sandy and Michael.
The strongest hurricane on record to make landfall over Jamaica was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of 130 mph. As of Monday morning, Melissa was classified as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 160 mph.
The 24 hours from midday on Monday to midday on Tuesday are forecast to be the most destructive for the island. The worst of the storm is expected to have passed over Jamaica by Wednesday morning.
Tropical storm-force winds are already occurring across Jamaica. They will steadily increase through Monday. Hurricane force winds are expected late tonight and through Wednesday morning.
Due to Melissa's slow pace, massive amounts of rain will fall on the island totaling 15 to 30 inches -- and up to 40 inches in localized areas.
The National Hurricane Center has warned that this rainfall is expected to produce catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding today through Tuesday.
-ABC News' Kenton Gewecke
The National Hurricane Center on Monday upgraded Hurricane Melissa to a Category 5 hurricane as the storm approached the coast of Jamaica.
The NHC reported sustained winds of 160 mph for the hurricane, which is located 130 miles from the Jamaican capital of Kingston and moving west at 3 mph.
Destructive winds, storm surge and "catastrophic flooding" are forecast to worsen on Jamaica through Monday ahead of the storm making landfall, the NHC said in a post to X.
-ABC News' Kenton Gewecke
As Melissa continues churning in the Caribbean, hurricane warnings remain in effect for Jamaica and portions of eastern Cuba, with a Hurricane Watch in effect for portions of southern Haiti, from the border with the Dominican Republic to Port-Au-Prince.
A tropical storm warning remains in effect for the southwestern peninsula of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Port-Au-Prince, and for the Cuban province of Las Tunas.
Melissa will head to the northeast over Jamaica on Tuesday and is still expected to make a second landfall over eastern Cuba by Tuesday night as a major hurricane.
The storm is expected to weaken but maintain its hurricane status as it tracks near or over the southeastern Bahamas or Turks and Caicos Islands Wednesday night into Thursday.
