Hurricane Melissa plowed toward Jamaica as a powerful Category 5 storm, threatening to bring widespread destruction to the island.
Melissa’s top winds reached 160 miles (257 kilometers) per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 8 a.m. local time. Destructive winds, storm surge and catastrophic flooding are expected to worsen Monday before Melissa makes landfall overnight. If it maintains its strength, Melissa would be the first confirmed Category 5 storm — the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale – to hit Jamaica.
Melissa, currently about 135 miles southwest of Kingston, is forecast