Australia Weather News

A cherry red classic car — one of Cuba's informal emblems — crushed under a fallen tree.

A bird's eye view of Jamaica's crystalline oceans made unrecognisable with brown sludge.

Hurricane Melissa, dubbed the "storm of the century", tore through Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti and left a trail of damage and displacement in its wake.

Here are some of the earliest images of its aftermath.

Jamaica

In the southern parish of Jamaica's St Elizabeth, a church's walls stand barren — the roof and interior ripped clean from its shell.

At least four bodies were found in south-west Jamaica following the storm, authorities said.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness said up to 90 per cent of homes in the south-west coastal community of Black River had lost their roof.

"Black River is what you would describe as ground zero," he said.

"The people are still coming to grips with the destruction."

More than 25,000 people remained crowded into shelters across the western half of Jamaica, with 77 per cent of the island left without power.

Aerial pictures of Montego Bay showed a thick brown sludge where green shrubbery once grew.

Montego Bay resident Alfred Hines, 77, waded through floodwaters with mud-caked belongings.

"At one stage, I see the water at my waist and [in] about 10 minutes' time, I see it around my neck here and I make my escape," he told Reuters.

"I just want to forget it and things come back to normal."

Haiti

In a country already ravaged by gun violence, Melissa wielded another brutal blow.

At least 25 people have been reported dead and 18 others are missing, mostly in the country's southern region.

Steven Guadard, who lives in Petit-Goâve, said the hurricane killed his entire family.

"I had four children at home: a one-month-old baby, a seven-year-old, an eight-year-old and another who was about to turn four," he told AP.

Out of the 20 people killed in Petit-Goâve, 10 were children.

Extended gang conflict has impoverished Haiti and displaced more than 1.3 million people.

Many of those were living in makeshift camps when the flooding began.

Cuba

Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel attributed "preparation, organisation, and discipline" to the fact that his country had avoided fatalities as the category three storm hit.

Santiago de Cuba felt the brunt of the storm and local Alexis Carbonnel described Melissa as "a monster".

"We had never seen anything like this in history," he told Reuters.

More than 735,000 Cubans had evacuated as the storm hit.

Local resident Francisco Garcia returned home and spent more than two hours trying to remove a massive rock that crashed through his front door.

Others saved mattresses and tables, hung clothing to dry on toppled trees.