Breaking News: Hurricane Melissa set to hit Jamaica as its strongest storm since records began

Melissa is roaring toward Jamaica right now, packing 185-mph winds—one of the fiercest Atlantic hurricanes on record. The island stands right in its path. People are bracing for disaster; this storm threatens to tear through Jamaica with a force the country’s never seen. The UN is already calling it the “storm of the century.”

The danger isn’t just looming—it’s real. Melissa has already claimed seven lives: three in Jamaica as people scrambled to prepare, three in Haiti, and one in the Dominican Republic.

In Alligator Pond, a small village on Jamaica’s southwest coast, panic has set in. Evrol Christian, who runs a restaurant there, described the chaos as he tried to get out. “Everybody in Alligator Pond is crying out now. I’m sorry that I never took the bus yesterday to go to higher ground,” he said, with hurricane winds howling over the phone. The sea, he told them, had breached the wall. “We’re in serious trouble.” He begged his neighbors to take the warning seriously: leave now.

Christian’s voice cracked as he surveyed the scene. “The whole coastline is gone. The waves are as high as around 15 feet. And the wind speed, presently, it’s like I can see the wind. It’s unbelievable.”

Jamaica’s power has already started to fail. Daryl Vaz, the country’s Minister for Science, Energy, Telecommunications, and Transport, said Jamaica Public Service—the sole electricity provider—has seen hurricane-force winds and lightning knock out power across the island. By Tuesday, about 35% of customers—roughly 240,000 people—were already in the dark.

Most hospitals still have electricity, except those in Manchester and St. Elizabeth, where backup generators are running. “There is no plan at this point to shut down the grid,” Vaz said, and crews are out there, trying to restore power wherever it’s safe. But with the full fury of Melissa bearing down, nobody knows when the lights will come back.