Hurricane Melissa live updates: No official death toll in Jamaica
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.
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Hurricane Melissa upgraded to Category 5
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
The latest on Melissa's track and a look at hurricane watches and warnings
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.
Jamaica's airports close as island braces for storm's impact
All airports in Jamaica were closed Sunday ahead of Melissa's landfall, the country's transportation minister said.
In addition, Starlink, the telecommunications subsidiary of SpaceX, has provided support to the government to help with communication capability during and after the storm's passage.
Melissa could be strongest hurricane to hit Jamaica in more than 35 years
Hurricane Melissa has rapidly intensified into a major Category 4 storm, producing maximum sustained wind speeds of 145 mph.
If it maintains its strength, it could become the strongest hurricane to make landfall over the island since the National Hurricane Center started keeping records.
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.