STORY: Jamaicans continued to make preparations for the onslaught of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa on Monday (October 27), even as rain and wind began to lash the island.

In Kingston, one gas station attendant was wrapping up the tanks in plastic when a driver arrived in search of last-minute fuel. The attendant filled up the car, and then struggled to re-wrap the tank as wind whipped the plastic and tape.

Hurricane Melissa was packing sustained winds of up to 175 mph (282 kph) on Monday afternoon, as the slow-moving Category 5 storm was on course to barrel into Jamaica, in what could be the largest on record for the Caribbean island.

As of 2 p.m. (1800 GMT), Melissa was a "catastrophic" storm, the strongest possible on the Saffir-Simpson scale, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. The NHC expects Melissa to move over Jamaica late Monday or in the early hours of Tuesday, cross eastern Cuba the following night and move over the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos by Wednesday. The storm's slow movement over unusually tepid Caribbean water had contributed to its ballooning size and strength, NHC forecasters said, threatening Jamaica with days of never-before-seen catastrophic winds and as much as 3 feet of rain.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: PALM TREES BLOWING IN WIND, GAS STATION ATTENDANT PREPPING GAS TANKS

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: KINGSTON, JAMAICA (OCTOBER 27, 2025) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. VARIOUS OF PALM TREES BLOWING IN WIND

2. VARIOUS OF GAS STATION ATTENDANT WRAPPING PLASTIC AROUND TANKS

3. ATTENDANT STARTING TO UNWRAP TANKS TO FILL UP CAR

4. ATTENDANT PUMPING GAS

5. VARIOUS OF ATTENDANT WRAPPING TANKS AGAIN