A powerful hurricane is barreling toward Jamaica with anticipation that it will be the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean island in modern history.

Hurricane Melissa began rapidly intensifying over the weekend. It is expected to make landfall early Tuesday morning in Jamaica, threatening to trigger severe flooding and catastrophic landslides, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) . Not only will the storm be strong, but its slow-moving pace across the Caribbean will likely worsen its impacts.

Melissa is also forecast to strike parts of Cuba and the Bahamas later this week. The U.S. is not expected to be affected.

As of Monday evening, Melissa was a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, meaning sustained wind speeds will be 157 miles per ho

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