It is clear that wherever the eye of the hurricane hit, there would be devastating impacts”: Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness gives an update after a monster Category 5 hurricane hit the island with violent winds and torrential rain.

(FOX 2) - Hurricane Melissa has exploded into one of the most powerful storms ever observed in the Atlantic Basin—a sprawling, violent, 400-mile-wide vortex with sustained winds of 175 mph and gusts easily exceeding that.

Hurricane Melissa is making landfall in Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, the strongest to hit the island since recordkeeping began 174 years ago.

Melissa directly hit Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the nation.

At least 30 people are dead and all of Jamaica has been declared a “disaster area” after Hurricane Melissa ripped down power lines and caused widespread flooding across the Caribbean.

The Jamaican government is urging residents to stay alert for crocodiles after days of torrential rain and flooding from Hurricane Melissa.

Jamaica’s peak tourism season is one month away, and officials in the hurricane-ravaged nation are rushing to rebuild from the catastrophic Category 5 storm that shredded the island’s western region