GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) -More than 30 people have died in the Caribbean due to Hurricane Melissa, which struck Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane. Jamaica faced the worst of the storm, with at least 8 fatalities and more than 70% of the country left without power.

Saying "recovery cannot be left to chance," Edmund Bartlett said Jamaica's Ministry of Tourism has activated a Hurricane Melissa Recovery Task Force.

Hurricane Melissa— one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded—is now off Cuba’s eastern coast, after leaving a trail of destruction across the large island and its much smaller neighbor, Jamaica.

Jamaica aims to fully restore its tourism sector with the help of a recovery task force focusing on infrastructure and support for tourism workers.

Hurricane Melissa is now moving northeast from Cuba after hammering the island with powerful winds and rain. As the storm scrapes Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas with its destructive force, residents in low-lying and flood prone areas have been urged to evacuate ahead of a shelter-in-place order coming tonight.

South Florida was spared a direct blow from Hurricane Melissa, but the massive storm still hit home for the millions of residents there who have deep roots in the Caribbean.

Melissa tore through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful storms in recorded history and made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a deadly Category 5 hurricane. By Thursday, the storm had further weakened as it moved over the southeastern Bahamas and ...

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