Hurricane Melissa is so severe that even hurricane tracking weather planes have been forced to avoid the storm.

Hurricane Melissa is making its way across Cuba as a Category 2 storm, a day after making landfall in Jamaica as one of the region’s strongest storms on record.

Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons, has pledged an initial $1.5 million through his foundation to aid Hurricane Melissa relief efforts across Jamaica and the Caribbean.

CORE, which has previous experience responding to storms in the Caribbean, has deployed air cargo ships of hygiene kits, tarps and essential relief supplies to Jamaica and is preparing to send resources to Haiti. The organization is accepting donations here.

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, 8 a.m. ET The National Hurricane Center's 8 a.m. Wednesday update reported that Category 2 Hurricane Melissa is 45 miles northwest of Guantanamo Cuba and 205 miles south of the Central Bahamas.

The strongest storm to directly hit Jamaica before Melissa was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which made landfall as a category four hurricane, according to the US National Weather Service. Damaging winds and heavy rain have hit eastern Cuba, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center.