2025 Hurricane Season

With many connected through Jamaican heritage, about a dozen Broward elected officials and community leaders discussed ongoing aid efforts.

South Florida was spared a direct blow from Hurricane Melissa, but the massive storm still hit home for the millions of residents there who have deep roots in the Caribbean. Now, the Caribbean diaspora from Miami to New York City is turning its heartbreak into action.

In large South Florida Jamaican communities like Lauderhill's, the urgent drive to collect and ship Hurricane Melissa relief aid to their devastated island goes on alongside the frustrating effort to communicate with loved ones there.

People across the northern Caribbean are digging out from the destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa as deaths from the storm climbed.

Updated: Hurricane Melissa has caused severe flooding and storm surge in Cuba after leaving Jamaica with power outages and killing at least 40 people in Haiti.

Melissa is now traveling over Cuba, with strong, violent winds and extreme rainfall. Up to 16 inches of rain is possible for eastern Cuba.

Hurricane Melissa grew into one of the most powerful Atlantic tropical cyclones in recorded history on Oct. 28, 2025, hitting western Jamaica with 185 mph sustained winds. The Category 5 hurricane blew roofs off buildings and knocked down power lines, its torrential rainfall generated mudslides and flash flooding, and its storm surge inundated coastal areas.

The 185 mph winds that Melissa packed on landfall made it the most powerful recorded hurricane to ever hit Jamaica — challenging the mettle of the island's most storm-hardened denizens.

Melissa is a monster, and images start to emerge as Melissa moves through the island: landslides, flash floods, storm surge, and violent winds.

Hurricane Melissa has made landfall in Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned of devastating flash flooding and numerous landslides from the hurricane with 185 mph winds.

Another time a powerful, slow-moving storm wreaked havoc on a community was with Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Hurricane Melissa has intensified into a Category 5 storm as it draws closer to Jamaica, where forecasters say it will unleash catastrophic flooding, landslides and widespread damage. Melissa has been blamed for six deaths in the northern Caribbean.