"I can't even sleep. I didn't even sleep last night," said Dor Ivey, who has lived in Miami Gardens for 11 years and whose family remains in Jamaica.

NBC News' Tom Llamas spoke to Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness about the current state of the county as Hurricane Melissa makes landfall and how residents are being impacted.

Oral Cockett, a manager at GoldenKrust Caribbean Restaurant near NRG Stadium in Houston, has been in the city for just five months on a work visa. He is glued to his phone, waiting for updates from his family back home.

"There's a feeling of anxiety among a lot of persons," said Dontae Matthews, who lives in Saint Catherine, a parish about 10 miles from Kingston.

Melissa made landfall on Jamaica's southwestern coast around midday Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, with sustained winds of 185 mph, making it the strongest hurricane of the Atlantic season to date and the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the island.

There’s a feeling of anxiety among a lot of persons,” said Dontae Matthews, who lives in Saint Catherine, a parish about 10 miles from Kingston.

Reading restaurant owner Richard King says it's in moments like these that Jamaicans show the world their strength and their spirit.

As Hurricane Melissa barrels toward the island nation, only a fraction of residents have headed to evacuation centers.

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.