Hurricane Melissa is now headed for the Bahamas to continue its path of destruction, as reports of rising death tolls in Jamaica and Haiti emerge.
The centre of Melissa is expected to cross the Bahamas mid-morning AEDT as a Category 2 storm, well down from its historic high as a Category 5.
But residents are still being told to brace for destruction, with the US National Hurricane Centre's latest advisory reporting top sustained winds of about 160km/hr.
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The US State Department has established a task force to manage the US response to the hurricane, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirming he had been in contact with regional leaders – though not mentioning Cuba.
"We have rescue and response teams heading to affected areas along with critical lifesaving supplies," Rubio said in a post on X.
"Our prayers are with the people of the Caribbean."
Flooding from Hurricane Melissa has killed 25 people in Haiti while the storm still churned across Cuba after leaving Jamaica with widespread damage and power outages, officials say.
Jean Bertrand Subrème, mayor of the southern Haitian coastal town of Petit-Goâve, told The Associated Press 25 people died after La Digue river burst its banks and flooded nearby homes. Dozens of homes collapsed and people were still trapped under rubble as of Wednesday morning (early Thursday AEDT), he said.
"I am overwhelmed by the situation," he said as he pleaded with the government to help rescue victims.
Only one official from Haiti's Civil Protection Agency was in the area, with residents struggling to evacuate amid heavy floodwaters unleashed by Hurricane Melissa in recent days.
In Jamaica, more than 25,000 people were packed into shelters on Wednesday, hours after Melissa made landfall as a catastrophic Category 5 storm with top winds of 295km/h, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.
A government source told CNN four bodies had been recovered in Jamaica's St Elizabeth Parish, which was hit hard in the storm.
People kept streaming into the shelters throughout the day after the storm ripped off the roofs of their homes and left them temporarily homeless.
"The conditions here are devastating, catastrophic is a mild term based on what we are observing here," Black River Mayor Richard Solomon said in a video posted by the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
Black River is a coastal town in south-west Jamaica. The western side of the island borne the brunt of the Category 5 hurricane, government officials said previously.
"The hospital is totally devastated," Solomon said.
"When I say we are immobile, police units are down, all the units at the EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) are down because they would have been covered with water throughout the hurricane.
"So at this point in time we're unable to do any rescuing. We're unable to respond. So we are trying to let everybody know that the situation here is devastating. We need all the help that we can and conditions are going to deteriorate as the day progresses because persons are feeling it already," he added.
Police Superintendent Coleridge Minto, commanding officer for the St Elizabeth Division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, said the small food and water supplies available had been given to nurses and doctors.
Solomon added that a storage container with relief supplies was "totally wiped out." He and Minto called for aid from the prime minister and global organisations.
"It's not going to be an easy road, Jamaica," said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica's Disaster Risk Management Council.
"I know persons … are wondering what their future are going to be like."
Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica's education minister, said that 77 per cent of the island was without power on Wednesday but the water systems were not greatly affected.
At least one death was earlier reported in the island nation's west when a tree fell on a baby, state minister Abka Fitz-Henley told local radio station Nationwide News Network.
Cuba still riding out the storm
Officials reported collapsed houses, blocked mountain roads and roofs blown off in Cuba on Wednesday, with the most destruction concentrated in the south-west and north-west. Authorities said about 735,000 people remained in shelters in eastern Cuba.
"That was hell. All night long, it was terrible," said Reinaldo Charon in Santiago de Cuba. The 52-year-old was one of the few people venturing out on Wednesday, covered by a plastic sheet in the intermittent rain.
Parts of Granma province, especially the municipal capital, Jiguaní, were underwater, said Governor Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez. More than 40 centimetres of rain was reported in Jiguaní's settlement of Charco Redondo.
Melissa had top sustained winds of 155km/h, a Category 2 storm, and was moving north-east at 22 km/h, according to the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami. The hurricane was centred about 242 kilometres south of the central Bahamas.
Melissa was forecast to continue weakening as it crossed Cuba but remain strong as it moves across the south-eastern or central Bahamas later on Wednesday. It was expected to make its way late on Thursday near or to the west of Bermuda. Haiti and the Turks and Caicos also braced for its effects.
The storm was expected to generate a surge of up to four metres in the region and drop up to 51 centimetres of rain in parts of eastern Cuba. Intense rain could cause life-threatening flooding with numerous landslides, US forecasters said.
The hurricane could worsen Cuba's severe economic crisis, which already has led to prolonged power blackouts, as well as fuel and food shortages.
"There will be a lot of work to do. We know there will be a lot of damage," Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a televised address, and urged the population not to underestimate the power of Melissa, "the strongest ever to hit national territory."
Jamaica rushes to assess the damage
Jamaican officials reported complications in analysing the damage, while the National Hurricane Centre said the local government had lifted the tropical storm warning.
"There's a total communication blackout on that side," Richard Thompson, acting director general of Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, told the Nationwide News Network. More than half a million customers were without power late on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness is flying over the most affected areas, where crews were still trying to access areas and determine the extent of the damage, Dixon said.
Extensive damage was reported in parts of Clarendon in the south and in the south-western parish of St Elizabeth, which was "underwater" said McKenzie.
The Disaster Risk Management Council deputy chairman said the storm damaged four hospitals and left one without power, forcing officials to evacuate 75 patients.
Santa Cruz town in St Elizabeth parish was devastated. A landslide blocked main roads. Streets were reduced to mud pits. Residents swept water from homes as they tried to salvage belongings. Winds ripped off part of the roof at St Elizabeth Technical High School, a designated public shelter.
"I never see anything like this before in all my years living here," resident Jennifer Small said.
"The entire hillside came down last night," said another resident, Robert James.
The government said it hopes to reopen all of Jamaica's airports as early as Thursday to ensure quick distribution of emergency relief supplies.
The US government said it was deploying a disaster response team and search and rescue personnel to the region. And the State Department said non-emergency personnel and family members of US government employees were authorised to leave Jamaica because of the storm's impact.
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