Emergency relief flights began landing at Jamaica’s main international airport, which reopened late Wednesday, as crews distributed water, food and other basic supplies.

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

Officials continue to assess the full extent of the devastation wrought by Melissa, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms ever to make landfall.

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

The rumble of large machinery, whine of chain saws and chopping of machetes echoed through communities across the northern Caribbean on Thursday as they dug out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa and surveyed the damage left behind.