Before the storm barreled north over Cuba, at least seven people died across the Caribbean as the storm approached Jamaica. See the storm's impact on Cuba.

A very powerful Hurricane Melissa left a trail of devastation through eastern Cuba Wednesday morning, causing extensive damage, flooding and power outages to the region.

After Melissa moves away from Jamaica, Cuba is next in line for the powerful hurricane’s fury. Landfall is expected very early Wednesday morning, likely a couple hours after midnight, but impacts have already begun.

Rescue operations and urgent evacuations continued in Cuba on Friday, as people remained trapped by severe flooding left by the torrential rains from Hurricane Melissa on rural areas and towns across the affected provinces on the eastern end of the island.

Hurricane Melissa is slamming eastern Cuba on Wednesday morning, Oct. 29, after hammering Jamaica on Tuesday and causing widespread damage.

Hurricane Melissa had weakened some by Wednesday morning after hitting eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of roughly 120 mph, bringing life-threatening flooding, landslides and dangerous winds to the island a day after it bombarded Jamaica .

The hurricane made landfall in Cuba on Oct. 29 striking the Guamá area in Santiago de Cuba province as a Category 3 hurricane.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba — Hurricane Melissa was grinding across Cuba on Wednesday as a Category 3 storm after pummeling Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

People across the northern Caribbean were digging out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa​ on Thursday as deaths from the catastrophic storm climbed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledges "immediate humanitarian aid" to Cuba as State Department responds to effects of Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean.