Communities across the Caribbean are reeling in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, which ripped through Jamaica, Cuba and Hispaniola, the island comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic, this week. While officials said that damage assessments remained underway to determine the full scope of the destruction,

A tourist visiting Jamaica described the record-breaking Hurriane Melissa as "a freight train with a jet engine."

People across the northern Caribbean are digging out from the destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa as deaths from the storm climbed.

In Jamaica, 25,000 people crowded into shelters after the hurricane destroyed homes and left most of the island without power.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba overnight after battering Jamaica as one of the most powerful landfalling storms in Atlantic basin history.

Images from a helicopter over Black River, a coastal town of 5,000 in southwestern Jamaica, show the extent of the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa.

As Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica with its powerful winds and heavy rainfall, some people along the Grand Strand constantly tracked the storm and checked in with family still on the island. Christopher Anderson,

More than 24 hours after Hurricane Melissa pummelled Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, Chris Garwood was still trying to make contact with his mother and a sibling who live in St. Elizabeth parish.