Over the last 24 hours, Hurricane Melissa barreled across Jamaica before slamming into Cuba overnight, bringing damaging winds, flash flooding and landslides to both countries.

The storm made landfall along the southern coast of Jamaica as a Category 5, making it the most powerful hurricane on record to cross the island nation. Melissa caused widespread infrastructure damage, including power and communication outages that left hundreds of thousands of residents in the dark.

In Cuba, the storm made landfall as a Category 3 storm and was still crossing the country on the morning of Oct. 29, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center.

Ahead of the storm's eyewall reaching the southern coast of Cuba, the hurricane center described Melissa as an "extremely dangerous major hurricane."

More than 735,000 people were evacuated in Cuba by Tuesday night, Oct. 28, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a social media post. In the Bahamas, next in Melissa's path to the northeast, the government ordered evacuations of residents in southern portions of that archipelago.

Contributing: Phaedra Trethan, Dinah Voyles Pulver, Thao Nguyen

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Watch live video of Hurricane Melissa damage in Jamaica, Cuba

Reporting by Christopher Cann, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect