Hurricane Melissa is now squarely over western Jamaica, two hours after it officially made landfall as a dangerous Category 5 storm, inundating roads and bridges in low lying areas and causing widespread internet outages on the island.

Melissa’s centre is now squarely over western Jamaica, two hours after it officially made landfall. Following the landfall, Melissa appears to be losing some strength, as it tracks deeper into Jamaica this afternoon, reports CNN .

Melissa made landfall at around 1 p.m. local time near New Hope, Jamaica. Its 185 mph winds make it the strongest storm on record to smash into the country. Melissa is also tied as the second-strongest hurricane in Atlantic history, in terms of wind speed.

At least three people died during storm preparations in Jamaica, according to the national minister of health and wellness. Two of the deaths were from falling trees, and one person was electrocuted, the minister said. Another 13 people have been injured.

The hurricane’s winds of 185 mph at the time make it the strongest storm on record to smash into the country. Melissa is also one of the strongest hurricanes on record to make landfall in the Atlantic basin, tied with only two other storms — 2019’s Dorian and 1935’s Labour Day hurricanes.

Melissa is the strongest storm to make landfall anywhere in the Atlantic basin since 2019’s Hurricane Dorian.

Earlier, Prime Minister Andrew Holness told CNN the storm will cause “catastrophic damage.” Jamaica has never taken a hit from a Category 5, with a UN agency describing Melissa as the “storm of the century.”

Melissa is responsible for seven deaths — three in Jamaica during storm preparations, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile, in rural district of Saint Elizabeth Parish, a tourism hotspot, flood waters were churning in the street amid intense winds.

Hurricane Melissa has had a “catastrophic effect” on Jamaica, the country’s climate change minister told CNN, noting that regions across the whole island have been “inundated with floods”.

Authorities are receiving reports of “severely damaged public infrastructure, hospitals, (and) places of safety,” with many homes “inundated and flooded,” Matthew Samuda, Jamaica’s Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change, told CNN.

Around 70 percent of the island’s population lives within 5 kilometers of the sea, Samuda said.

Though preparations were made in advance of the Category 5 storm, “there (are) limited things you can do to prepare for a storm of this nature,” he said, noting that it is a “very dicey situation.”

“We are monitoring very carefully, and we’re hoping for storm conditions to subside so rescue teams can go into the field where we’ve had distress calls,” the minister added.

There were widespread reports of internet outages across Jamaica as Hurricane Melissa approached the island earlier today, according to the internet watchdog NetBlocks. The outages were reported as winds brought down power lines, the watchdog said on X.

The parish of Hanover in the northwest of the island had only 2% network connectivity at around 11:20 a.m. local time, NetBlocks said. Other regions had connectivity rates between 53% and 86%, it added.

Damage to other infrastructure across Jamaica is also being reported, as bridges and roads across the country have been flooded, including some of the primary roads accessing remote areas, Jamaica’s National Works Agency said in various posts on social media.

In a related development, the UK said it is positioning “rapid deployment teams” in the region to support British nationals and is preparing to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in need.