KINGSTON, Jamaica — Hurricane Melissa intensified to Category 5 strength Monday as it neared Jamaica, where forecasters said it would unleash catastrophic flooding, multiple landslides and extensive infrastructure damage. It would be the strongest hurricane to hit the island since record keeping began in 1851.

Melissa, blamed for six deaths in the northern Caribbean as it headed toward the island, was forecast to make landfall on Jamaica on Tuesday and then Cuba later in the day before heading toward the Bahamas, but it was not expected to affect the United States.

Hanna Mcleod, a 23-year-old hotel receptionist in the Jamaican capital of Kingston, said she will have to work during the hurricane, but that her husband and brother will be at her house, where they boarded the windows and she

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