Very not good...

This one is truly leaving a mark, and NOT in a good way...

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Hurricane Melissa made its catastrophic landfall along the southwestern coast of Jamaica on Tuesday afternoon as a historic Category 5 storm, lashing the Caribbean island nation with destructive winds well over 100 mph, torrential rains measured in feet and life-threatening storm surge.

Landfall occurred at 1 p.m. ET near New Hope, Jamaica, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), with winds of 185 mph. Since landfall, Melissa’s winds have degraded, but it is still a dangerous Category 3 hurricane.

The eye of the storm has passed over the western side of the island and has since re-emerged over the anomalously warm waters of the Caribbean, eyeing Cuba next.

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

Folks, this is truly bad. Jamaica is not a rich country, nor are the people well off. The amount of damage will be horrendous, exceeding what we saw with Katrina here in the US. In total, Jamaica is only 146 miles long and varies in width from 22 to 51 miles.

And most of those folks had nowhere to ‘escape’ to. The island is not that big, and only has ONE major highway (T-3) that crosses the island from Spanish Town to the area west of Ocho Rios. All of the other ‘highways’ are at best secondary roads.

Some estimates say up to 1.5 million have been significantly impacted by the storm. At least it didn’t hit Kingston, the main population center, but Melissa was bigger than the entire island, with 3 FEET of rain predicted, and storm surges of 13 feet or greater.

A number of US organizations are standing by to go in as soon as possible to start rescue efforts, but food, water, and shelter are going to be an issue, especially on the western end of the island. And I’m not sure if Montego Bay will survive... It was a neat little coastal town back in the 80s...

So if you have a moment, say a prayer for those folks, and the ones in Cuba, and Bermuda who are next to be hit by Melissa...