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

Hurricane Melissa has continued its devastating sweep across the Caribbean, decimating homes and infrastructure, flooding neighbourhoods and leaving dozens dead.

People across the northern Caribbean were digging out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa on Thursday as deaths from the catastrophic storm climbed. The rumble of large machinery, whine of chainsaws and chopping of machetes echoed throughout southeast Jamaica as government workers and residents began clearing

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

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

There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said ahead of the storm's landfall.

Hurricane Melissa barreled into Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm with some of the fastest winds and strongest intensities ever recorded. The storm blew through the Caribbean island’s southwestern coast,

The U.S. Air Force Reserve's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the "Hurricane Hunters," were forced to turn back at one point due to heavy turbulence after flying into the eye of Hurricane Melissa on Monday.