Melissa could briefly bring a swell and rough seas to the U.S. East Coast after it passes the Bahamas later in the week, but because of the angle and speed at which it's moving off into the Atlantic, Roth said any coastal impacts should be short-lived.

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

Hurricane Melissa is edging toward Jamaica and is set to make landfall as a historic Category 5 storm. NBC News' Tom Llamas speaks with an American couple stranded there.

Melissa strengthened into a deadly Category 5 hurricane Monday with catastrophic impacts expected across the Caribbean, similar to Sarasota last year.

The news “underscores the profound ecological toll that Hurricane Melissa will have on Jamaica’s biodiversity,” said one expert on the island.

"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.

Sarasota County is allocating nearly $14.5 million for the initial phase of dredging Phillippi Creek to address flooding. The project follows severe flooding from Hurricane Debby in 2024, which highlighted significant sediment buildup in the waterway.

Hurricane Melissa remains a powerful Category 5 storm with winds of 175 mph that is forecast to slam into Jamaica as the worst storm the island has ever seen.Here is Melissa’s forecast path:  Hurricane Melissa live updates: Storm upgraded to Category 5 on approach to JamaicaThe catastrophic and life-threatening hurricane-force winds will begin in Jamaica on Monday night.