After savaging Jamaica as one of the most powerful hurricanes on record, swamping Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas and skirting Bermuda, Hurricane Melissa is rapidly speeding out into the Atlantic and is expected to drop down into an extratropical cyclone later today, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center.

Tens of thousands of Jamaicans were in shelters, and more than two-thirds of the island was still without power, according to officials.

Jamaica is beginning a long recovery after taking the direct hit from Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall as a Category Five storm earlier this week. Communities from Montego Bay to the southern coast sustained catastrophic damage,

Hurricane Melissa has strengthened back into a Category 2 hurricane after devastating Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas and is heading toweard Bermuda.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in southwest Jamaica this week near the coastal town of Black River, which the government has described as “ground zero.”

Cuba worked on Friday to rescue residents still stranded by unprecedented floodwaters in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, including a flooded river that had cut off one of the country's most important east-west thoroughfares.

Parts of the Caribbean began surveying the damage caused by the deadly Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in Jamaica as a powerful Category 5.