Joan Edghill of Ocoee worried about her 90-year-old uncle in Jamaica as the ferocious Category 5 Hurricane Melissa barreled toward the country where she was born.

Hurricane Melissa is now among the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record. The monster storm strengthened Tuesday before hitting Jamaica, bringing with it maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph).

As Hurricane Melissa crosses over Jamaica with record-breaking winds and rain, these webcams show what happens as long as power holds out.

"It is more than kind of distressing because you don't know when and you don't know how," said Ewan Simpson, who lives in Jamaica.

Forecasters said the colossal amount of rain dropped on parts of Florida east and north of Orlando was comparable to what the region saw from a hurricane in 2022, underscoring the state's vulnerability to extreme weather far beyond the tropical storms that brew offshore.

Melissa is a deadly Category 5 hurricane and is expected to become to worst hurricane in Jamaica's history before it travels north to Cuba.

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Andy Hazelton, a hurricane hunter and modeler at the University of Miami, told me he has been flying morning missions into Melissa’s eye since Saturday. (I am a journalist-in-residence at the University of Miami but have not previously collaborated with Hazelton or any of the other hurricane experts I contacted for this story.