While it's too early to know the full impact of Melissa, Montego Bay was underwater on Wednesday and infrastructure was damaged. The city is the home to several resorts and golf courses. Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the town of New Hope on the southwestern tip of Jamaica. By 8 p.m., it was heading to eastern Cuba.

Twenty-five thousand tourists rode out the storm on the island, and all are safe, according to the tourism minister.

Melissa moved like a buzzsaw over the western parishes of Jamaica. The storm's devastating eyewall passed directly over Montego Bay, Jamaica's third most populous city and a popular tourist destination.

Airlines had been sending larger planes to Montego Bay to help evacuate tourists, knowing the island was set to take a direct hit from a very dangerous, slow-moving hurricane. Not all visitors in Jamaica will be able to leave this Caribbean island.

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Stranded vacationers on the island, which depends on tourism, used their beds to block their windows in case the powerful storm shattered the glass.

The Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism for Jamaica, told eTurboNews minutes ago that the situation is under control and reminded the public that Jamaica reassures the Safety of Visitors