Hurricane Melissa heads to Bermuda leaving devastation in Jamaica

Jamaica has ramped up rescue and relief efforts to clear roads and reach people in isolated and cut-off areas after Hurricane Melissa rampaged through the Caribbean, with the storm now heading towards Bermuda.

Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, was spared the worst damage and the main international airport has reopened to allow flights carrying critical aid to land. Some towns were described by officials as “underwater” and power lines and mobile network towers were down in much of the south-west.

“The devastation is enormous,” said the transportation minister, Daryl Vaz.

Jamaica was hit first and hardest this week when Melissa made landfall on Tuesday. It was the country’s strongest hurricane since records began in 1851. The storm carried sustained winds of 185mph, far above the minimum for a category 5 storm, the strongest classification for hurricanes.

The British government said on Thursday that it was chartering flights to the island. “The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has chartered a limited number of flights from Jamaica for British nationals who are unable to fly home commercially,” it said in a statement.

Hurricane Melissa has been intensely destructive, causing billions of dollars of estimated damage, but accurate forecasting and government calls for people to seek shelter meant many people who were able to reach shelters were protected.

Four deaths were reported in Jamaica. In Haiti, 25 people, including 10 children, died in flood waters when a river overflowed its banks. “It is a sad moment for the country,” said Laurent Saint-Cyr, the head of the transitional presidential council of Haiti, the Caribbean’s most populous nation.

In eastern Cuba, authorities had evacuated about 735,000 people as the storm approached. It hit on Wednesday, but by Thursday, there was no official estimate of the damage. Photos from Santiago de Cuba, the province in the south-east where the storm passed over, showed people surrounded by tree branches and smashed up debris.

A man walks his dog past downed trees, power lines and destroyed houses in El Cobre in Cuba. Photograph: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty

Across the Bahamas archipelago, which Melissa has since passed, the government had flown out nearly 1,500 people in preparation in one of its largest evacuation operations.

Despite losing some power, Melissa was still carrying winds of close to 105 miles an hour (165kph), according to the US National Hurricane Center, downgraded to a category 2 storm but still a hurricane.

About 700 miles north-east of the storm’s position on Thursday, Bermudans prepared for its approach, expected by the evening local time. The hurricane is expected to significantly weaken on Friday.