Hurricane Kills at Least 20 in One Haitian Town

More than 30 deaths have been reported as Hurricane Melissa works its way Wednesday across Cuba and toward the Bahamas, a day after making landfall in Jamaica as one of the region's strongest storms on record. Officials in Haiti said at least 25 people were killed as waters rose in heavy rain. Eight deaths were reported in Jamaica, where the tropical storm warning has been lifted, and one in the Dominican Republic, the AP reports. The situation:

• Ahead: The US National Hurricane Center said a "dangerous storm surge" was expected in the Bahamas through the night, with eastern Cuba still at risk. Maximum sustained winds were 100 mph, as what had roared into Jamaica as a Category 5 storm was now at Category 2.

• At risk: The center said a hurricane warning remained for the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin, and Las Tunas, as well as the southeastern and central Bahamas and Bermuda. It said people should remain sheltered. The center warned that flash flooding and landslides were possible in Hispaniola, the island that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share. And it said a storm surge of 4 feet to 7 feet was possible in the southeastern Bahamas before the day is out.
• Help: Humanitarian efforts have begun, while local officials struggle to contact some areas and assess the storm's damage. Jamaica's education minister said 77% of the island was without power. The US government said it was deploying a disaster response team and search and rescue personnel to the region, in a test for the Trump administration after its massive cuts to foreign aid this year. The United Nations was preparing aid, and Britain said it is sending $3.3 million in humanitarian funding to Jamaica.

• Cuba: Officials reported collapsed houses, blocked mountain roads, and roofs blown off buildings on Wednesday, with the heaviest destruction concentrated in the southwest and northwest. Authorities said about 735,000 people remained in shelters. "That was hell. All night long, it was terrible," said Reinaldo Charon in Santiago de Cuba, per the AP.
• Haiti: As Charly Saint-Vil, 30, walked the streets of Petit-Goâve, Haiti, the small coastal town where he grew up, he saw bodies lying among the debris on the street. People were screaming as they searched for their missing children, he said. Officials said the hurricane killed at least 20 people in the town of approximately 12,000 people, per the AP. "People have lost everything," said Saint-Vil.