A father-of-three has described the "unbearable" moment the centre of Hurricane Melissa passed over his hotel room in Jamaica where his family had barricaded themselves in. The category 5 storm hit the south west of the Caribbean island earlier bringing catastrophic wind speeds of 185 mph (295 km/h) and risks of flash flooding.

Jamaica is expected to be in the storm's eyewall, which refers to the band of dense clouds surrounding the eye of the hurricane. The eyewall generally produces the fiercest winds and heaviest rainfall, according to Deanna Hence, a professor of climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Hurricane Melissa has made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, tying for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. ( WAFF) - Huntsville is home to many from Jamaica who still have friends and family in the Caribbean. They are calling Hurricane Melissa “historic” and “unheard of” as they wait to hear from their loved ones. On Tuesday, two Huntsville residents sat down with WAFF 48’s Faith Delp.

As Hurricane Melissa threatens island nations across the Caribbean, many are already burdened by debt from a string of climate-fueled crises.

Hurricane conditions could last for three days straight in some places, AccuWeather lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva warned.