More than 24 hours after Hurricane Melissa pummelled Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, Chris Garwood was still trying to make contact with his mother and a sibling who live in St. Elizabeth parish.

Images from a helicopter over Black River, a coastal town of 5,000 in southwestern Jamaica, show the extent of the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall along Jamaica's southwestern coast Tuesday as an extremely powerful Category 5 storm.

The most powerful storm to hit the region since 1988 could inundate some areas of eastern Jamaica with up to 40 inches of rain. The arrival of its core has been delayed by stalling.

Hurricane Melissa brought devastation and death to the Caribbean as it tore through the region as one of the most powerful storms on earth in more than 150 years.

The National Hurricane Center's 5 a.m. Thursday update reported that Category 2 Hurricane Melissa is in the Atlantic Ocean, 215 miles northeast of the Central Bahamas and 685 miles southwest of Bermuda. The hurricane is moving north-northeast at 21 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph.

The Bay Area's Jamaican American Community Organization and local Jamaican business owners kept close to their phones Tuesday, waiting for word from family and friends in Jamaica as the Category 5 Hurricane Melissa battered homes ,

With the most powerful of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season still wreaking havoc, an NFL owner is doing his part to help out those in need. Hurricane Melissa landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane,