Hurricane Melissa moves across Jamaica, battering island with winds and heavy rain

interior the eyeball of Hurricane genus melissa

Hurricane Melissa makes landfall

Jamaican official warns of 'life-threatening' risk from Hurricane Melissa

Jamaica bracing for ‘massive impact’ ahead of powerful hurricane

According to AccuWeather, Melissa is the third-most intense hurricane ever observed in the Caribbean. Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 was the last major storm to directly hit Jamaica.

People across the Caribbean braced themselves for Hurricane Melissa on Tuesday before the storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history, swept across western Jamaica, tearing roofs off buildings and sending trees and boulders into roadways.

The storm also drenched Haiti and the Dominican Republic and is next expected to hit Cuba.

The federal government has set up a dedicated emergency watch and response centre for Canadians affected by Hurricane Melissa.

Global Affairs Canada has posted a number of ways to get in touch with the centre in a post to its Foreign Policy CAN account on X.

(1/2) Canada stands with Jamaica, Cuba, and the broader Caribbean community as Hurricane Melissa impacts the region. We are closely monitoring the situation and stand ready to provide assistance, including humanitarian support. <a href="https://t.co/e9ZfBXomHO">pic.twitter.com/e9ZfBXomHO</a>

Canada’s consular services is also encouraging those in affected areas to sign up with Registration of Canadians Abroad to get updates.

Meanwhile, Global Affairs is also standing by to provide disaster assistance to the region.

“We are in close contact with humanitarian partners to deploy relief supplies and ensure a co-ordinated and rapid response to the hurricane’s impact,” it said in a post to its Development Canada account on X.

Looks like the hurricane hunters are on the move!

According to FlightRadar24, NOAA42, one of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fleet of hurricane-hunting airplanes, has left its base in Lakeland, Fla., and is heading in the direction of Melissa.

They fly into the hurricane itself, collecting valuable data, including wind speeds.

These are some brave folks, people!

As Hurricane Melissa approaches, officials in Cuba say they have already helped more than 500,000 people evacuate from areas prone to flooding and vulnerable to winds, Reuters is reporting.

"There are no half measures," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a message published in state newspaper Granma.

"Melissa will arrive with force, and there's great concern about what it could destroy in its wake," he said.

After their flight home from Jamaica on Sunday was cancelled, Stephanie Brayford and her family are now sheltering in place in a hotel conference room in Negril on the island’s west coast.

“And I have experienced a tornado,” she said. “The winds just take your breath away.”

Brayford said hotel staff tried to board up the entrance to protect the building from the intense winds, but the boards “were gone within hours of putting them up.”

For now, she said, she and her family are safe, holing up with other guests in the conference room while sleeping on deck chair cushions.

But when they’ll be able to make it back home to Canada remains to be seen.

Flights to Cuba are being affected as Hurricane Melissa is scheduled to hit the popular tourist destination next.

Air Canada noted that flights to Varadero and Cayo Coco could be affected over the next couple days, while WestJet issued a travel advisory for Holguin and Turks and Caicos. Sunwing Vacations and Air Transat have both posted travel advisories for Holguin.

“We’re seeing flight cancellations, particularly to Holguin, today and tomorrow,” Toronto Pearson Airport duty manager Sonny Parmar told CP24 earlier today.

According to SkyScanner, nearly all flights in and out of Holguin’s airport were cancelled today. A WestJet flight to Holguin scheduled to leave Toronto’s Pearson Airport today was cancelled.

The Government of Canada’s travel advisory website says all travel to Cuba’s eastern provinces should be avoided. That includes Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas.

While Hurricane Melissa is currently far from Canada, its forecasted path will take it off the coast of Newfoundland — though that could change in the coming days.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre (CHC) has issued its first advisory for the storm.

“The CHC will be monitoring the evolution of Hurricane Melissa this week as it begins moving through the Caribbean. While the hurricane accelerates northward, a large area of low pressure will form over the northeastern U.S. Bringing rain and strong winds to a large portion of eastern Canada,” the statement said.

“The wind circulation of Melissa is expected to track well offshore (likely near or over the southern Grand Banks) and not directly affect land. The large non-tropical low over eastern Canada could tap into some moisture from the hurricane that could influence its intensity and rainfall potential.”

The latest update from the U.S. National Hurricane Center says Melissa is now a Category 4, with maximum sustained winds of 240 km/h. This was expected, as hurricanes tend to weaken once over land.

However, let’s not forget that dropping a category doesn’t make it any less dangerous to life and property.

And it still remains to be seen what will happen once Melissa goes over open water again as it makes its way toward Cuba and then the Bahamas in the coming days.

The National Hurricane Center’s next full advisory is expected at 5 p.m. ET.

Here’s the most recent satellite coverage of Hurricane Melissa as it crossed over Jamaica.

One for the history bookes. This morning <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Melissa?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Melissa</a> became one of the strongest hurricanes ever at landfall in the Atlantic. Truly astonishing. Here is a close-up view of its landfall this afternoon. <a href="https://t.co/TrIakU0dXD">pic.twitter.com/TrIakU0dXD</a>

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