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Residents in Jamaica are grappling with the scale of devastation wrought by Hurricane Melissa, as the storm moves into the Atlantic and starts to weaken. The hurricane made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday, local time, as a catastrophic category five storm, making it one of the strongest hurricanes on record. The system has also swept through Cuba and Haiti and is expected to affect the Bahamas and Bermuda, albeit as a weaker category two. At its peak as it crossed the Jamaican coast, the storm was packing winds of 295 kilometres an hour. Images of the aftermath show ripped up roads, downed trees and powerlines, and collapsed houses. People were streaming into the shelters throughout the day after the storm ripped off the roofs of their homes and left them temporarily homeless. Jamaican officials have reported complications in assessing the full extent of the damage due to communication blackouts. Extensive damage was reported in communities in the south of the country. Santa Cruz town in St. Elizabeth parish was devastated, the Associated Press reported. A landslide blocked main roads, streets were reduced to mud pits and residents swept water from homes as they tried to salvage belongings. "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. Three-quarters of Jamaica without power 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. "It's not going to be an easy road, Jamaica," said Jamaica's Disaster Risk Management Council deputy chairperson Desmond McKenzie said. "I know persons … are wondering what their future are going to be like." Jamaican education minister Dana Morris Dixon said 77 per cent of the island was without power on Wednesday but that water systems were not greatly affected. At least one death was 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. Caribbean nations hit hard as Melissa sweeps through As of Wednesday, it had weakened to a category two after also churning through the nearby Caribbean nations of Haiti and Cuba. In Haiti, at least 25 people are dead in one coastal town alone after a river burst its banks and flooded nearby homes. Petit-Goâve mayor Jean Bertrand Subrème said dozens of homes had collapsed and people were still trapped under rubble as of Wednesday morning. "I am overwhelmed by the situation," he said as he pleaded with the government to help rescue victims. In Cuba, officials reported collapsed houses, blocked mountain roads and roofs blown off on Wednesday, local time. The most destruction was 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 Wednesday, covered by a plastic sheet in the intermittent rain.
