Jamaica on high alert as world's strongest storm of 2025, Melissa approaches

Jamaica is bracing for the world's strongest storm of 2025 after Hurricane Melissa was blamed for seven deaths across the Caribbean.

The Category 5 hurricane is expected to gather speed and batter the Caribbean country with up to 30 inches of rain when it makes landfall early Tuesday. Maximum sustained winds are expected to reach 175 mph, Independent reported.

“Catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding and numerous landslides are likely,” the National Hurricane Center in Miami has warned.

Three people in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic have died.

Warning that Melissa could be the strongest storm to hit the island in its history, Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness said: "I have been on my knees in prayer."

“Many of these communities will not survive this flooding,” local government minister Desmond McKenzie said at a press conference on Monday. “Kingston is low, extremely low. No community in Kingston is immune from flooding.”

Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica's information minister, said that the force of the storm was unprecedented.“We've heard the rainfall numbers. They're numbers we've never heard before,” he said.