Hurricane Melissa barreled through the northern Caribbean on Wednesday after thrashing Cuba’s second-biggest city, isolating hundreds of rural communities, unleashing devastation in Jamaica and drenching Haiti, where at least 25 were killed.

Melissa struck Jamaica on Tuesday as the strongest-ever hurricane to directly hit its shores, with sustained winds of 185 mph (298 kph), well above the minimum strength for a Category 5, the strongest classification for hurricanes.

As of 8 p.m. (0000 GMT), Melissa was a Category 1 hurricane bringing wind, rain and storm surges as it moved north-east through the Bahamas archipelago, whose government earlier flew out nearly 1,500 people in what it called one of its largest evacuation operations.

Residents in the Bahamas and nearby Turks and Caicos

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