The US National Hurricane Centre says the category four storm is "extremely dangerous and life-threatening" as it hits the island.

Footage from a U.S. Air Force weather reconnaissance flight that passed through Hurricane Melissa’s eye confirms you probably don’t want to be there. The U.S. Defense Department released the video after flying multiple passes through the Category 5 storm on Monday to collect weather data for the National Hurricane Center.

The U.S. Air Force Reserve's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the "Hurricane Hunters," were forced to turn back at one point due to heavy turbulence after flying into the eye of Hurricane Melissa on Monday.

A father-of-three has described the "unbearable" moment the centre of Hurricane Melissa passed over his hotel room in Jamaica where his family had barricaded themselves in. The category 5 storm hit the south west of the Caribbean island earlier bringing catastrophic wind speeds of 185 mph (295 km/h) and risks of flash flooding.

Celebrity Beyond’s Oct. 26 itinerary will visit the Western Caribbean rather than the Eastern Caribbean, according to the cruise line’s parent company, Royal Caribbean Group. The ship will visit Costa Maya in Mexico, Belize and Roatan, Honduras.

Jamaica is expected to be in the storm's eyewall, which refers to the band of dense clouds surrounding the eye of the hurricane. The eyewall generally produces the fiercest winds and heaviest rainfall, according to Deanna Hence, a professor of climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.