Hurricane Melissa, described as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history, made landfall in Jamaica as a category 5 storm before moving towards Cuba. The US National Hurricane Center said the system is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it crosses Cuba, the Bahamas and passes near Bermuda.
Jamaica's minister of local government, Desmond Mckenzie, said the south-western parish of St Elizabeth was "under water" and that at least three families were trapped in their homes in the community of Black River. Emergency services were struggling to reach them due to dangerous conditions, he added. More than 530,000 people were without electricity and close to 15,000 were in storm shelters.
Mckenzie described the hurricane as "one of the worst experiences that [Jamaica] has ever encountered". Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the Caribbean country a disaster area as a result of widespread flooding, landslides and infrastructure damage. Melissa is the most intense hurricane to hit Jamaica since records began in 1851.
In a televised address, Cuba's president Miguel Díaz-Canel warned the storm could be "one of the most severe – or possibly the strongest" ever to hit the island. More than 500,000 people had been evacuated from its path, and wind speeds dropped to 145mph as the storm moved across Jamaica, making it a category 4 system.
Speaking before the storm struck, Holness said: "There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a category 5. The question now is the speed of recovery." Streets in the capital, Kingston, remained largely empty as the full force of Melissa continued to batter the island.
