Our correspondent in Jamaica reports floods, mudslides, roofs being ripped from buildings, and "palm trees tossed like toothpicks".

In the last 25 years, a total of 10 major hurricanes have lashed the island. “Cuba is right in the center of things,” a weather historian said.

Hurricane Melissa is now among the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record. The monster storm tied a record for the strongest winds speeds by an Atlantic storm while making landfall as it

A hurricane forms when warm, moist air rises from the ocean surface and creates a spinning system of clouds and storms. In the centre, air sinks, creating the eye, a calm, cloud-free zone surrounded by a wall of violent winds and rain known as the eye-wall.

Hurricane Melissa barreled into Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm with some of the fastest winds and strongest intensities ever recorded. The storm blew through the Caribbean island’s southwestern coast,