Hurricane Melissa is expected to make landfall in Jamaica in the next few hours. The category 5 hurricane underwent extremely rapid intensification with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and is the strongest storm on the planet this year. Three people in Jamaica have died in the past few days while preparing for the approaching storm.
Hurricane Melissa is called the "storm of the century" for Jamaica and is expected to cause a catastrophic situation. The island nation hasn't taken a direct hit from a hurricane in over a decade and never from a category 5. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for Jamaica's vulnerable coastal areas.
The storm threatens to devastate Jamaica's infrastructure and cut off communities.
From Jamaica, the storm is expected to move northeast towards Cuba as a category four storm, before continuing to the Bahamas on Wednesday as category two.
Yesterday, FreshPlaza published an article with comments from the produce industry and will continue to closely follow the situation.
© National Hurricane Center
Probable path of the storm center.
