Hurricane Melissa barrelled north of Cuba on Wednesday after thrashing the city of Santiago and isolating hundreds of rural communities while unleashing devastation in Jamaica and drenching Haiti, where reports surfaced of more than two dozen fatalities.
Melissa slammed into Jamaica as a record-breaking and destructive Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185 mph (298 kph) but it had been downgraded to a Category 3 when it hit Cuba
