Hurricane Melissa

Communities across the Caribbean are reeling from Hurricane Melissawhich this week devastated Jamaica, Cuba and Hispaniola, the island that includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

While officials said damage assessments were still ongoing to determine the full extent of the destruction, satellite images offered a preliminary glimpse of some of the storm’s severe impacts on stretches of Jamaica’s coast.

Side-by-side aerial photographs show the fishing village of White House, in southwestern Jamaica, and the nearby town of Black River before and after Melissa crashed into the island. Each pair captures a once-vibrant-looking city reduced to dirt and rubble.

Melissa hit Jamaica on Tuesday, the first time it made landfall in several cases, as an extremely powerful Category 5 hurricane. It was the strongest storm to hit Jamaica in the island’s history, in addition to one of the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. This was due to its winds and pressure, which are two main markers of intensity.

The hurricane’s maximum winds had reached a formidable 185 mph when it collided with the southwestern coast of Jamaica. Although its speed slowed somewhat in the hours after landfall, Melissa’s winds remained well above the 157 mph threshold that the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale establishes to determine the minimum criteria for a Category 5 storm.

At least four people died in Jamaica as a result of the storm, local government minister Desmond McKenzie said in a statement released Wednesday. McKenzie said police found their bodies swept away by flood waters and determined that the four were “by all indications direct victims of the hurricane.”

More than 25,000 people remained crammed into shelters on the island Wednesday, after the storm temporarily displaced some residents and left others homeless. Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s Education Minister, said 77% of the island was without power the morning after the storm, while Richard Thompson, acting director general of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, told radio station Nationwide News Network that officials were facing challenges trying to conduct damage assessments, due to “a complete communications blackout” in certain areas.

Outside of Jamaica, authorities have confirmed at least 23 deaths in Haiti and at least one death in the Dominican Republic as a result of the hurricane. The storm was moving away from the Bahamas on Thursday morning. and headed towards Bermudaaccording to the National Hurricane Center.