Hurricane Melissa is expected to weaken into an extratropical cyclone on Friday, Oct. 31, the National Hurricane Center said.

The BBC's Will Grant witnessed the devastation in the town of Black River, as he joined an aid helicopter flight over the island.

The storm will hit Bermuda on Thursday afternoon or evening, after Jamaica faced the devastation from one of the most powerful storms ever recorded.

Hurricane Melissa's sustained winds of 185-mph become one of the two strongest Atlantic storms on record to make landfall, USA TODAY reported.

Westmoreland parish is believed to have the second highest number of unconfirmed deaths, after St Elizabeth to the south east. The eye of the storm hit somewhere between the two neighbouring parishes. At St Elisabeth an estimated 90% of homes have been destroyed.

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.

The National Hurricane Center's 10 p.m. Thursday update reported that Category 2 Hurricane Melissa is in the Atlantic Ocean, 325 miles west-southwest of Bermuda. The hurricane is moving northeast at 31 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph.

PM Andrew Holness warns of reports of possible fatalities still to be verified - suggesting the figure may yet rise.