Hurricane Melissa, now a powerful Category 5 storm, is bearing down on Jamaica and is forecast to be the worst storm in the island's history. Melissa is set to bring catastrophic winds, rain, flooding and storm surge to Jamaica, where residents and tourists are sheltering in place. Landfall is expected early Tuesday morning.

Hurricane Melissa is edging towards Jamaica and set to make landfall as a historic Category 5 storm, with winds of over 160 mph. Jamaica is bracing for what the National Hurricane Center said would be catastrophic flash flooding and landslides caused by up to 40 inches of rain in some places. The storm is due to make landfall early Tuesday.

"Catastrophic winds in the eyewall have the potential to cause total structural failure especially in higher elevation areas tonight and early Tuesday."

Vision of the Seas is skipping Sydney on her last Canada sailing of the season due to rough weather, but will overnight in Halifax instead.

Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to strengthen into a hurricane, threatening the northern Caribbean with massive rainfall and life-threatening flooding

Slow-moving hurricanes and tropical storms can be as dangerous as intense hurricanes, even when they are weaker. A textbook case of this happened in late October 1998.

The calm, 11-mile-wide eye of Hurricane Melissa is encircled by its most ferocious winds, which are now beginning what forecasters called a “painstakingly slow turn” toward Jamaica — a crawl that will drag the storm over the island at a speed no faster than a person can walk.