Hurricane Melissa strengthened further Tuesday as it crawled toward Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, the strongest to lash the island since recordkeeping began 174 years ago.

The storm is expected to make landfall early Tuesday and slice diagonally across the island, entering near St. Elizabeth parish in the south and exiting around St. Ann parish in the north, forecasters said.

Melissa was centered about 30 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Negril and about 230 miles (375 kilometers) southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba. The system had maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph) and was moving north-northeast at 9 mph (11 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Melissa is the fifth most intense Atlantic basin hurricane on record by pressure and the stronge

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