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

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.

Hurricane Melissa brought devastation and death to the Caribbean as it tore through the region as one of the most powerful storms on earth in more than 150 years.

Hurricane Melissa left dozens dead and widespread destruction across Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti on Wednesday, and it continued on to pass through the Bahamas as a weakened storm.

Forecasters say Melissa is moving toward the north-northeast at around 21 mph and is expected to continue accelerating northeastward.

Melissa was a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 105 mph as of 7 a.m. Thursday and a hurricane warning was in effect in Bermuda. Melissa was 605 miles west of Bermuda, moving north-northeast at 21 mph. There is no threat to Louisiana or the Gulf Coast.

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.

Hurricane Melissa is slamming eastern Cuba on Wednesday morning, Oct. 29, after hammering Jamaica on Tuesday and causing widespread 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."

High above Earth, satellites like the European Union's Copernicus Sentinel-2 watch and track storms such as Hurricane Melissa, a category 5 maelstrom. These satellites help keep continuous eyes on the tempest and provide valuable data about how these natural disasters form and how they can impact communities in a changing world.