Hurricane Melissa strengthened into a Category 5 storm early Monday, unleashing torrential rain and threatening to bring catastrophic flooding to the northern Caribbean.

The Union have extended their donation drive to collect items for people affected by Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean. They have also expanded the effort, now including goalkeeper Andre Blake ’s Jamaica and midfielder Danley Jean Jacques’ Haiti.

In Cooper City, Brittany and Dwayne Wolfe have offered up their home as a drop-off site for diapers and other necessities. The couple are the cofounders of The Greater Fort Lauderdale Diaper Bank, and many of the organization’s volunteers and supporters grew up in Jamaica or still have family on the island.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in southwest Jamaica near the coastal town of Black River, which the government has described as “ground zero.”

Parts of the Caribbean began surveying the damage caused by the deadly Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in Jamaica as a powerful Category 5.

Melissa, now a Category 2 hurricane, will bring heavy rain from the Mid-Atlantic to New England as it heads toward Bermuda and Newfoundland, Canada.

One week after Hurricane Melissa hit, parts of Jamaica are still reeling, but relief aid is coming from all over the world, including here in the Philadelphia area.

Aid begins to arrive in areas of Jamaica hardest hit by hurricane Melissa, as residents plead for help from abroad. Melissa caused at least 59 deaths and massive destruction across the Caribbean this week,