Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica.
Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica after the storm made landfall on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.
After lashing Jamaica with dangerous winds and flooding rain, Melissa made a second landfall in Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday morning. Melissa then moved through the Bahamas, and next, on Thursday night, the storm will pass Bermuda as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness posted videos to X on Wednesday showing the devastation wrought to western parts of the island by the passage of Hurricane Melissa.
In the St. James area in the northwest of Jamaica, Holness said, residents "suffered significant damage including severe flooding."
The State Department is deploying several dozen disaster relief workers, including urban search and rescue teams, to Caribbean countries hard-hit by Hurricane Melissa, officials said Wednesday.
The teams are expected to arrive in Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti within the next 24 hours, senior officials with the State Department said. They include dozens of personnel from Washington and regional hubs in Miami and Costa Rica.
The State Department has also asked the U.S. military to assist with the disaster relief efforts, a U.S. official said. The mission would likely include airlifts of food, water and other supplies to remote areas of Jamaica, the official said.
The military's Honduras-based Joint Task Force-Bravo is on standby to help, per another U.S. official. FEMA will also have a role in the response management team, the official said.
-ABC News' Mariam Khan
Hurricane Melissa has largely impacted the eastern part of Cuba, with preliminary assessments indicating significant damage in the Santiago de Cuba province, officials said.
Fallen trees, collapsed power lines and roof damage to homes and state government buildings have been reported, according to Jorge Luis Broche, the first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba.
As of midday Wednesday, no injuries or deaths had been reported in the province, which is located in the southeastern part of the island nation, Broche said.
The full extent of damage will be determined during the recovery phase, he said.
-ABC News' Mara Valdes
Relief flights began Wednesday afternoon at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica, officials said.
Commercial flights are expected to begin again at the airport, which did not sustain serious damage, starting at 7 a.m. Thursday local time, according to Jamaica's transportation minister.
The Ian Fleming International Airport in northern Jamaica is also expected to reopen to commercial flights at 7 a.m. Thursday, the official said.
The airport in Montego Bay sustained damage in the storm and it is unclear when it will reopen to commercial flights, the official said. The airport will open to relief flights starting on Thursday.
