Hurricane Melissa's death toll climbs to 44, storm churns north

Hurricane Melissa's confirmed death toll climbed to 44 on Thursday, according to official reports, after wreaking destruction across much of the northern Caribbean and picking up speed as it headed toward Bermuda.

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Jamaica's information minister told Reuters at least 19 deaths had been confirmed, but authorities were continuing search and rescue efforts. The storm left hundreds of thousands without power, ripped roofs of buildings and scattered fields with rubble.

Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica on Tuesday as a powerful Category 5 hurricane, the Caribbean nation's strongest-ever storm to directly hit its shores, and the first major hurricane to do so since 1988.

Windspeeds were well above the minimum level for the strongest hurricane classification. Forecasters at AccuWeather said it tied in second place for strongest-ever Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of windspeed when in struck land.

The forecaster estimated $48 billion to $52 billion in damage and economic loss across the western Caribbean.

Authorities in Haiti, which was not directly hit but nevertheless suffered days of torrential rains from the slow-moving storm, reported at least 25 deaths, mostly in the southern town of Petit-Goave when a river burst its banks.

A river also caved in and carried off part of a national highway, local newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported. The road, which had been weakened by last year's Hurricane Beryl, connected to the nearby city of Jacmel.

Melissa also hit eastern Cuba, where some 735,000 evacuated, but as of Thursday, no deaths were reported there, despite extensive damage to homes and crops.

At 8 p.m. (0000 GMT), Melissa was a Category 1 storm 409 km (254 miles) south-west of the North Atlantic British island territory, where hurricane conditions were expected by nightfall even as Melissa's eye skirts north-west.