The rumble of large machinery, whine of chain saws and chopping of machetes echoed through communities across the northern Caribbean on Thursday, October 30, as they dug out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa and surveyed the damage left behind. In Jamaica, government workers and residents began clearing roads in a push to reach dozens of isolated communities in the island’s southeast that sustained a direct hit from one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record. Stunned residents wandered about, some staring at their roofless homes and waterlogged belongings strewn around them.

Emergency relief flights began landing at Jamaica’s main international airport, which reopened late Wednesday, as crews distributed water, medicine and other basic supplies. Helicopters dropped food as they thrummed above communities where the storm flattened homes, wiped out roads and destroyed bridges, cutting them off from assistance. “The entire Jamaica is really broken because of what has happened,” Education Minister Dana Morris Dixon said.

Police said at least 14 people have died in Jamaica, and they expected the death toll to keep rising. In one isolated community, residents pleaded with officials to remove the body of one victim tangled in a tree. More than 13,000 people remained crowded into shelters, with 72% of the island without power and only 35% of mobile phone sites in operation, officials said. People clutched cash as they formed long lines at the few gas stations and supermarkets open in affected areas. “We understand the frustration, we understand your anxiety, but we ask for your patience,” said Daryl Vaz, Jamaica’s telecommunications and energy minister.

Water trucks have been mobilized to serve many of Jamaica’s rural communities that are not connected to the government’s utility system, Water Minister Matthew Samuda said.

Slow recovery in Cuba

In Cuba, heavy equipment began to clear blocked roads and highways and the military helped rescue people trapped in isolated communities and at risk from landslides. No deaths were reported after the Civil Defense evacuated more than 735,000 people across eastern Cuba ahead of the storm. Residents were slowly starting to return home Thursday.

The town of El Cobre in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba was one of the hardest hit. Home to some 7,000 people, it is also the site of the Basilica of Our Lady of Charity, the patron saint of Cuba who is deeply venerated by Catholics and practitioners of Santería, an Afro-Cuban religion. Even the basilica wasn’t spared. “Here at the sanctuary, the carpentry, stained glass and even the masonry suffered extensive damage,” Father Rogelio Dean Puerta said.

A televised Civil Defense meeting chaired by President Miguel Díaz-Canel did not provide an official estimate of the damage. However, officials from the affected provinces — Santiago, Granma, Holguín, Guantánamo, and Las Tunas — reported losses of roofs, power lines and fiber optic telecommunications cables, as well as roads cut off, isolating communities, and heavy losses in banana, cassava and coffee plantations.

Many communities were still without electricity, internet and telephone service because of downed transformers and power lines.

In an unusual statement Thursday, the US State Department said the United States was “ready to assist the Cuban people.” A press release said the US “is prepared to provide immediate humanitarian assistance directly and through local partners who can deliver it more effectively to those in need.”

The statement did not specify how the cooperation would be coordinated or whether contact had been made with the Cuban government, with which it maintains a bitter conflict that includes six decades of economic and financial sanctions.

Death and flooding in Haiti

Melissa also unleashed catastrophic flooding in Haiti, where at least 30 people were reported killed and 20 others were missing, mostly in the country’s southern region. Some 15,000 people also remained in shelters.

“It is a sad moment for the country,” said Laurent Saint-Cyr, president of Haiti’s transitional presidential council. He said officials expect the death toll to rise and noted that the government was mobilizing resources to search for people and provide emergency relief.

Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said Hurricane Melissa killed at least 20 people, including 10 children, in Petit-Goâve, where more than 160 homes were damaged and 80 others destroyed. Steven Guadard said Melissa killed his entire family in Petit-Goâve, including four children ranging in age from 1-month to 8-years-old.

When Melissa came ashore in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane with top winds of 185 mph (295 kph) on Tuesday, it tied strength records for Atlantic hurricanes making landfall, both in wind speed and barometric pressure.

Melissa was a Category 2 storm with top sustained winds near 105 mph (165 kph) on Thursday afternoon and was moving northeast at 31 mph (50 kph), according to the US National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centered about 325 miles (520 kilometers) west-southwest of Bermuda.

Melissa brushed past the southeast Bahamas on Wednesday, forcing officials to evacuate 1,400 people ahead of the storm. Melissa was forecast to pass near or to the west of Bermuda late Thursday and may strengthen further before weakening on Friday. Bermuda’s international airport was to close Thursday evening and reopen Friday at noon, while all schools on the wealthy British territory were ordered closed.