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

Hurricane Melissa struck the western part of Jamaica the hardest, leaving widespread destruction, officials said. Black River Hospital on the southwest side of the island has been devastated and several other hospitals suffered damage, Desmond McKenzie, the minister of Local Government and Community Development, said.

There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said ahead of the storm's landfall.

Jamaica is bracing for potentially its strongest storm to ever impact the island, as the slow-moving, major Category 5 hurricane closes in. AccuWeather's Leslie Hudson reports from Lake County, FL, where 16 inches of rain in 6 hours triggered a rare flash flood emergency, washing out roads and flooding homes.

It also marks the first time in 20 years that three or more Category 5 hurricanes have developed over the Atlantic Basin in one season. The last time was in 2005, when Hurricanes Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma all reached Category 5—breaking a record.

Hurricane Melissa approached Jamaica as a powerful Category 5 storm as forecasters warned it would cause catastrophic flash flooding, life-threatening landslides and extremely strong winds across the Caribbean. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned people in Jamaica to go to shelters and stay there during the storm.

A father-of-three has described the "unbearable" moment the centre of Hurricane Melissa passed over his hotel room in Jamaica where his family had barricaded themselves in. The category 5 storm hit the south west of the Caribbean island earlier bringing catastrophic wind speeds of 185 mph (295 km/h) and risks of flash flooding.

Hurricane Melissa barreled into Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm with some of the fastest winds and strongest intensities ever recorded. The storm blew through the Caribbean island’s southwestern coast,