Hello and welcome to News Out from the BBC World Service coming to you live from London with me,
Sean Lay.
It feels as if we're being stalked by the hurricane.
That's what a Jamaican government minister told me on Monday's NewsHour.
The slow advance of storm Melissa over the 24 hours which followed has,
if anything, made the anticipation worse.
It hit the island at lunchtime, local time,
that's about three and a half hours ago, in all its terrifying majesty.
With torrential rain, powerful winds and on the coast, storm surges of water pounding buildings.
Melissa struck near New Hope, 62km south of Montego Bay, one of the country's main tourist areas.
The US National Hurricane Center said wind speeds reached 295km per hour,
about 185mph before the storm was downgraded in the last hour or so to Category 4.
Still severe, still life-threatening.
Before the storm hit, Evan Thompson, principal director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica,
warned about the danger the island faced from its impact.
We did say that the system is a Category 5 hurricane at this time and when it makes landfall it is expected to still be a Category 5 hurricane.
That means it will cause catastrophic damage, life-threatening damage.
There is very little that can stop a Category 5 hurricane
if you are under the impact of those Category 5 hurricane force winds.
you will be having significant difficulty, even with infrastructure that's in the area.