Hurricane Melissa is making a historic, catastrophic Category 5 landfall in Jamaica today with life-threatening flash flooding, landslides, destructive winds, and storm surge in one of the strongest landfalls on record anywhere in the Atlantic Basin.
In the 174 years of recorded hurricane history — dating back to 1851 — Jamaica has never taken a direct hit from a Category 5 storm.
Only two Category 3 or 4 hurricanes have come within close distance to Jamaica — Hurricane Allen (1980) and Hurricane Ivan (2004), both of which were Category 4 storms at the time.
Even Hurricane Ivan, which in 2004 tore along its southern coast as a Category 4, spared the island’s heart.
