Hurricane Melissa made landfall along Jamaica's southwestern coast Tuesday as an extremely powerful Category 5 storm.

Melissa tore through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful storms in history. By Thursday, the storm weakened as it left the Bahamas.

The storm was making its way to the Bahamas and Bermuda on Thursday morning as Jamaica confronted the devastation from one of the most potent storms ever recorded anywhere.

Jamaica has been left reeling after Hurricane Melissa tore across the island as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, leaving Montego Bay, a popular tourist destination, in ruins. New video from a Hotel Catalonia guest shows debris blanketing the ground, roofs ripped away and trees twisted and mangled from the storm’s winds.

Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica as a powerful Category 5 hurricane, the Caribbean nation's strongest-ever storm to directly hit its shores since 1988

People across the northern Caribbean were digging out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa​ on Thursday as deaths from the catastrophic storm climbed.

Follow live updates on Hurricane Melissa as the death toll reaches 38 people. Recovery efforts are underway in Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

South Florida was spared a direct blow from Hurricane Melissa, but the massive storm still hit home for the millions of residents there who have deep roots in the Caribbean. Now, the Caribbean diaspora from Miami to New York City is turning its heartbreak into action: filling warehouses with emergency supplies to send to

The prime minister ordered mandatory evacuations as officials braced for tens of thousands to be displaced. Three people were killed and 13 others injured during preparations for the storm, the health minister said.

Hurricane Melissa— one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded—is now off Cuba’s eastern coast, after leaving a trail of destruction across the large island and its much smaller neighbor, Jamaica.

In southeastern Jamaica, government workers and residents began clearing roads in a push to reach dozens of isolated communities.