CBS News Miami has been in touch with families living through the aftermath, including Marvin Edwards, who rode out the hurricane in Montego Bay.

Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica on Tuesday, prompting the prime minister to declare the country a disaster area, after the storm made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.

Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm, is approaching Jamaica with winds of up to 280 kilometres per hour, making it the strongest hurricane recorded in the island’s history. Moving slowly at around seven kilometres per hour,

Hurricane Melissa has been upgraded to a Category 5 storm, with dangerous winds, storm surge and flash flooding expected in Jamaica, forecasters said.

Hurricane Melissa is on track to pass through the southeastern islands of the Bahamas, which are sparsely populated compared to the islands in the north of the archipelago. The two islands that are in the storm’s direct path, Crooked Island and Long Island, have a total population of just a few thousand people.

Decentralized messaging app Bitchat has surged to the #2 spot in Jamaica as the nation’s 2.8 million residents contend with little or no internet access amid Hurricane Melissa.

ATLANTA — The Jamaican Consulate of Atlanta is sharing the ways that you can help people stranded by Hurricane Melissa. Hurricane Melissa has caused significant damage in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Jamaica. With disrupted communication, it has been difficult for people in Atlanta to contact their relatives in the affected areas.

Hurricane Melissa intensified to a Category 5 storm on Monday and continued to strengthen as it moved closer to Jamaica, where it was forecast to cause life-threatening flash flooding, landslides, and devastating damage to infrastructure. It arrived on the island’s southwestern coast around noon local time Tuesday.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Melissa has begun affecting the southeastern Bahamas SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba — Melissa began affecting the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.