Storm-ravaged communities in western Jamaica were facing dire straits Sunday, days after record-setting Hurricane Melissa left towns demolished and at least 28 people dead across the island. Melissa became the most intense storm to make landfall in 90 years when it barreled into Jamaica last Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane packing winds of 185 miles (300 kilometers) per hour.

As flights from the Caribbean continued to land in South Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, CBS News Miami caught up with a man who was on the other side of the doors, waiting for someone special.

Follow live updates on Hurricane Melissa as the death toll reaches 38 people. Recovery efforts are underway in Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

Click here to watch"I am grateful to God to be here, to be home, to be safe and to be alive," Britt-Johnson said.Britt-Johnson shared an embrace among a group, she says, helped save her life.The south suburban woman finally back home after being stranded in Jamaica for days without the critical kidney transplant medications she needed.

On Oct. 28, 2025 Hurricane Melissa— one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record —slammed into the west coast of Jamaica. It brought 185 mph peak winds, destroying 90% of homes in the Black River area and leaving at least 50 dead —a count that will surely rise as search and rescue continues.

Saying "recovery cannot be left to chance," Edmund Bartlett said Jamaica's Ministry of Tourism has activated a Hurricane Melissa Recovery Task Force.

Now, satellite images reveal in detail the areas ravaged by Melissa and, for hard-hit Black River, the scale of destruction. A Bloomberg News analysis found that at least 76% of the buildings in Black River, a port community near where the hurricane crashed into the Jamaica coast, were damaged, many with collapsed roofs.

Mercy Chefs, a disaster relief organization, has established operations on Jamaica’s west side in St. Elizabeth, an area that had received minimal assistance until now, according to the organization’s founder and CEO Gary LeBlanc.