Hurricane Melissa is now moving northeast from Cuba after hammering the island with powerful winds and rain. As the storm scrapes Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas with its destructive force, residents in low-lying and flood prone areas have been urged to evacuate ahead of a shelter-in-place order coming tonight.

Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to rapidly intensify over the weekend into a Category 4 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. The slow-moving storm is forecast to bring "life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides to southern Hispaniola and Jamaica through the weekend.

Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to bring catastrophic flash flooding and landslides to parts of the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.

Melissa is currently the only active tropical system in the Atlantic basin. As of Friday night, the storm remains nearly stationary, drifting north at just 2 mph. Maximum sustained winds are around 65 mph—just below the 75 mph threshold needed to reach Category 1 hurricane status.

Here's a look at where Tropical Storm Melissa is, where it's headed and the impacts it could have in Sarasota.

Tropical Storm Melissa is nearly stationary in the central Caribbean, with forecasters warning it could soon strengthen and brush past Jamaica as a powerful hurricane.

The capitals and exclamation points are warranted. Hurricane Melissa is an extraordinary storm, even among the many massive, fast-growing, devastating cyclones that have been erupting in the Atlantic Ocean in recent years.

Lightning flashes in the eyewall of Category 5 Melissa are a marker of how strong the storm is. It reached a central pressure of 892 millibars, among the lowest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It is tied as the third-most intense Atlantic storm with the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane.