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

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

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

Missy Elliott, who collaborated with Kartel on 2005's "Bad Man," wrote, "Prayers up for everyone in Jamaica," on X, followed by several Jamaican flag and prayer hands emojis. When reminded to also pray for those in need in Cuba and Haiti, Eliott responded, "Absolutely."

After savaging Jamaica as one of the most powerful hurricanes on record, swamping Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas and skirting Bermuda, Hurricane Melissa is rapidly speeding out into the Atlantic and is expected to drop down into an extratropical cyclone later today,

Hurricane Melissa barreled through Jamaica’s southwestern coast on Tuesday, October 28, leaving a significant amount of damage in its wake.Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a “powerful” Category 5 storm on Tuesday morning with sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h),