Hurricane Melissa made landfall in southwest Jamaica this week near the coastal town of Black River, which the government has described as “ground zero.”

Days after a powerful hurricane made landfall in Jamaica, thousands of residents are now homeless and trying to make sense of how they narrowly survived. The New York Times traveled to the storm’s center in Black River,

Black River, Jamaica was completely destroyed by Hurricane Melissa. Residents say aid still has not arrived in the town, and they are in desperate need of food and water. NBC News’ George Solis reports.

In the days since Hurricane Melissa ripped through the Caribbean, we’re getting a clearer understanding of both the destruction and desperation the deadly storm has caused.

At least two people in the town died, and its historical buildings were reduced to rubble. Black River on Wednesday was unrecognizable to people there: The coastline was strewed with massive boulders, and a cellphone tower had twisted into a semicircle.

The Evangelical humanitarian charity Samaritan's Purse has airlifted a 30-bed emergency field hospital to one of the hardest-hit Jamaican towns to provide medical aid after a local hospital was destroyed by Hurricane Melissa last week.

Cuba worked on Friday to rescue residents still stranded by unprecedented floodwaters in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, including a flooded river that had cut off one of the country's most important east-west thoroughfares.