Hurricane Melissa Bears Down on Jamaica as Category 5 Storm (2)

Hurricane Melissa is churning toward Jamaica as the island’s worst-ever storm, with high winds and flooding rains already pummeling coastal areas in the hours before landfall.

Melissa’s top winds reached 185 miles (298 kilometers) per hour, up from 180 mph earlier Tuesday. It’s a Category 5 storm, the highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. The dangerous storm was about 30 miles southeast of Negril, Jamaica, at the western tip of the island, the US National Hurricane Center said in an update at noon New York time.

If the storm maintains this intensity, it will be the strongest to hit ...