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.

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

Hurricane Melissa is now moving northeast from Cuba after hammering the island with powerful winds and rain. As the storm scrapes Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas with its destructive force, residents in low-lying and flood prone areas have been urged to evacuate ahead of a shelter-in-place order coming tonight.

The storm left widespread destruction and at least dozens of deaths in its path. In Chicago, people are looking for ways to help.

For Arlene Wright, the scariest thing right now is the repeated unanswered calls to her 76-year-old aunt who lives alone in Black River, Jamaica, a town the prime minister has just described to the BBC as "totally destroyed".

In Haiti, 25 people have died after a river burst its banks during Hurricane Melissa. The storm hit Jamaica yesterday, leaving 77% of the island without power. This morning, it swept across Cuba. The extent of the damage across the Caribbean is not yet known.