Hurricane Melissa has barrelled through the Caribbean after thrashing Cuba's second-biggest city, isolating hundreds of rural communities, unleashing devastation in Jamaica and drenching Haiti, where at least 25 people were killed.

Melissa struck Jamaica on Tuesday as the strongest-ever hurricane to directly hit its shores, with sustained winds of 298km/h, well above the minimum strength for a category five, the strongest classification for hurricanes.

On Wednesday night in the Caribbean, Melissa was a category one hurricane moving northeast through the Bahamas archipelago, which completed the air evacuation of nearly 1500 people early.

The storm did not directly hit Haiti, the Caribbean's most populous nation, but it hurled days of rain over the island nation. Authorities reported at l

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