At least five people have been killed on the island nation after the powerful category 5 storm hit earlier this week, with at least 20 left dead in Haiti.

People across the northern Caribbean are digging out from the destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa as deaths from the storm climbed.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall along Jamaica's southwestern coast Tuesday as an extremely powerful Category 5 storm.

The images reveal how the Category 5 hurricane caused devastation in some of Jamaica's communities.

Images from a helicopter over Black River, a coastal town of 5,000 in southwestern Jamaica, show the extent of the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa.

The storm was making its way to the Bahamas and Bermuda on Thursday morning as Jamaica confronted the devastation from one of the most potent storms ever recorded anywhere.

Melissa, dubbed Jamaica’s “storm of the century” by the World Meteorological Organization, quickly surpassed Hurricane Gilbert, which struck the island in 1988 with winds of 130 mph. Gilbert devastated Jamaica, killing 45 people and causing an estimated $700 million in damage.

A demolished church, roofs blown off homes, shattered windows and debris-strewn, impassable roads: Hurricane Melissa dealt a direct hit to Jamaica's southwestern coastal communities that face a long haul picking up the pieces."It's gonna be a long road back."