Category 5 Hurricane Melissa sped up early Tuesday making landfall in Jamaica around 1 p.m, tying the record for the strongest landfall in the Atlantic.

CBS News Miami has been in touch with families living through the aftermath, including Marvin Edwards, who rode out the hurricane in Montego Bay.

For Arlene Wright, the scariest thing right now is the repeated unanswered calls to her 76-year-old aunt who lives alone in Black River, Jamaica, a town the prime minister has just described to the BBC as "totally destroyed".

Hurricane Melissa is on track to pass through the southeastern islands of the Bahamas, which are sparsely populated compared to the islands in the north of the archipelago. The two islands that are in the storm’s direct path, Crooked Island and Long Island, have a total population of just a few thousand people.

Several Marylanders who traveled to Jamaica are trying to figure out their next moves after Hurricane Melissa ravaged the islands with category 5-force winds.

Disaster relief from the U.S. to Jamaica is delayed due to the government shutdown, but several private organizations are mobilizing to send relief after Hurricane Melissa. NBC News’ Jesse Kirsch spoke to one group packing up soup,

The UK will provide £2.5m in emergency humanitarian funding to Jamaica, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has announced. UK relief supplies and technical experts have also been deployed to assist with the disaster response and recovery from the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa.

Hurricane Sandy devastated Jamaica before turning north and hitting the East Coast of the United States. Shaun Donovan, the chair of the Obama administration's Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, joins "The Daily Report" to discuss the approach to rebuilding after devastation.