Article last updated: Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, 11 p.m. ET

Eastern Cuba braced on Monday (October 27) for Hurricane Melissa, as the Category 5 hurricane churned toward the island after passing over Jamaica, in what could be one of the strongest storms on record for the Caribbean island.

Jamaica is expected to be in the storm's eyewall, which refers to the band of dense clouds surrounding the eye of the hurricane. The eyewall generally produces the fiercest winds and heaviest rainfall, according to Deanna Hence, a professor of climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The U.S. Navy relocated hundreds of nonessential personnel from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Florida over the weekend.

The eye of Melissa is almost certain to make landfall on the south coast of Jamaica on Tuesday morning and pass over the north coast by Tuesday afternoon. While there is still a slight chance the center of the storm will slide around the island, forecasters say this will have little change in the overall threat.