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A video shared online shows the "monster eye" of Hurricane Melissa as it moves toward Jamaica, projected to be the planet's strongest storm of the year.
The "catastrophic" Category 5 storm was predicted to make landfall early Tuesday (October 28) morning on a diagonal path across Jamaica in what the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned could be the largest hurricane ever recorded for the Caribbean island. Aerial footage shared by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere showed "the monster eye at the center of a still strengthening Hurricane Melissa" and the storm still moving as "a Category 5 storm as it starts to move northward towards Jamaica" on Monday (October 27).
Hurricane Melissa's current wingspan is reported to be larger than the length of the entire country of Jamaica, with forecasters warning that the island could deal with days of catastrophic winds never-before-seen, up to 3 feet of rain as it progresses and a life-threatening storm surge reaching up to 13 feet across southern Jamaica.
“There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” said Prime Minister Andrew Holness during the hours before the storm was projected to strike via the New York Post. “The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge.”
At least seven people in the Caribbean, including three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, have died in relation to the powerful storm. Hurricane Melissa is expected to hit Cuba later in the day on Tuesday and the Bahamas at some point before Wednesday (October 29) night.