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

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

Hurricane Melissa left at least dozens dead and caused widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica, where roofless homes, toppled utility poles and water-logged furniture dominated the landscape Wednesday.

Category 5 Hurricane Melissa sped up early Tuesday making landfall in Jamaica around 1 p.m, tying the record for the strongest landfall in the Atlantic.

At first light on Wednesday, the coastal communities of southwestern Jamaica bore the devastation of being in the direct path of Hurricane Melissa.

Hurricane Melissa came ashore in Jamaica Tuesday as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, and it will continue on to hit eastern Cuba as a major hurricane,

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 struck the western part of Jamaica the hardest, leaving widespread destruction, officials said. Black River Hospital on the southwest side of the island has been devastated and several other hospitals suffered damage, Desmond McKenzie, the minister of Local Government and Community Development, said.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba as a Category 2 storm after hitting Jamaica as a Category 5. See the impact and storm tracker.