Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday, bringing “catastrophic winds, flash flooding, and storm surge” to Jamaica, the National Hurricane Center said.
As of 5 p.m. ET, Melissa was located around 15 miles east of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and was moving north-northeast at 8 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, making it a Category 4 storm. It’s now heading toward Cuba.
“Melissa will move away from western Jamaica this evening,” the NHC said in its latest advisory. “After that, the center is expected to move over southeastern Cuba later tonight and early Wednesday morning, move across the southeastern or central Bahamas later on Wednesday, and approach Bermuda Thursday and Thursday night.”
The storm made landfall near New Hope, Jamaica, around 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph. It’s “one of the most powerful hurricane landfalls on record in the Atlantic Basin,” according to the NHC.
Melissa has been blamed for at least seven deaths. At least three people were killed by the storm in Haiti over the weekend, and a fourth died in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing. In Jamaica, officials said at least three people died ahead of Melissa’s arrival.
Follow our live blog below for the latest on the storm, its path and its impact.
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