Communities across the Caribbean are reeling in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, which ripped through Jamaica, Cuba and Hispaniola, the island comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic, this week. While officials said that damage assessments remained underway to determine the full scope of the destruction,

Hurricane Melissa is slamming eastern Cuba on Wednesday morning, Oct. 29, after hammering Jamaica on Tuesday and causing widespread damage.

Ruth Lyn Deer, 76, rode out the storm in Cobie Ridge, a settlement about seven miles from Black River, according to Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner . The woman hunkered down inside her Food for the Poor home, which was built six years ago, and watched as the storm ripped off part of her roof and led to a sinkhole opening up in her bedroom.

Melissa directly hit Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the nation.

Josh Wurman and Karen Kosiba, the researchers inside the mobile radar unit, noted the average wind inside the hurricane’s eyewall was between 90 and 100 mph; it ramped up to 145 mph during the passage of at least one of these whirls.

When Rebecca Morris and her family learned that Hurricane Melissa was barreling toward Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, panic set in immediately. Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica on Tuesday, Oct. 28, as a catastrophic Category 5 storm.

More than 24 hours after Hurricane Melissa pummelled Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, Chris Garwood was still trying to make contact with his mother and a sibling who live in St. Elizabeth parish.

High above Earth, satellites like the European Union's Copernicus Sentinel-2 watch and track storms such as Hurricane Melissa, a category 5 maelstrom. These satellites help keep continuous eyes on the tempest and provide valuable data about how these natural disasters form and how they can impact communities in a changing world.