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.

Parts of the Caribbean began surveying the damage caused by the deadly Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in Jamaica as a powerful Category 5.

A Texas woman stranded in Jamaica with her family described what it was like to experience the catastrophic storm while sheltering at a Sandals resort.

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

Melissa directly hit Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the nation.

The National Hurricane Center's 1 a.m. Friday update reported that Category 2 Hurricane Melissa is in the Atlantic Ocean, 260 miles west-southwest of Bermuda. The hurricane is moving northeast at 32 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph.

Hurricane Melissa is so severe that even hurricane tracking weather planes have been forced to avoid the storm.

The Caribbean storm — among the most powerful in history, with 185 mph winds — is expected to bring flash-flooding and landslides as it slowly moves across the island and heads north toward Cuba.