Category 5 Hurricane Melissa has made landfall already in Jamaica and Cuba, as one of the strongest hurricanes to ever make landfall.

Of all the hazards that hurricanes bring, storm surge is the greatest threat to life and property along the coast. It can sweep homes off their foundations, flood riverside communities miles inland, and break up dunes and levees that normally protect coastal areas against storms.

Hurricane Melissa’s powerful winds and drenching rains devastated Jamaica. But is its wrath a sign that we need a new designation for monster storms?

Hurricane Melissa strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it churned northwest through the Caribbean Sea on Sunday.

See how NOAA and U.S. Air Force “hurricane hunters” fly directly into powerful storms to collect critical weather data.

Hurricane Melissa became a Category 5 hurricane on Monday, and the U.S. Air Force Reserve is among the agencies keeping an eye on the storm.

Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record, has carved a devastating path through the Caribbean this week.

Josh Wurman and Karen Kosiba, the researchers inside the mobile radar unit, noted the average wind inside the hurricane’s eyewall was between 90 and 100 mph; it ramped up to 145 mph during the passage of at least one of these whirls.

At 5 p.m., Melissa was located about 80 miles south of the Central Bahamas. Melissa is not expected to make landfall in Florida or the U.S. The powerful storm made landfall on Jamaica Tuesday morning and on Cuba early Wednesday morning. It's expected to move across the Bahamas later today and pass near Bermuda late Thursday.