Haitians in the capital Port-au-Prince, already facing the challenges of displacement, were burdened further Wednesday after Hurricane Melissa brought heavy rains which flooded makeshift tents and homes.

"I spent the night standing on a bucket. All those clothes that the children normally would sleep on got wet. So, the kids slept on the buckets," said Monise Saint-Jermain, a local resident from inside a camp made up of about 2,000 displaced families.

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

The hurricane unleashed catastrophic flooding in Haiti, where at least 25 people were reported killed and 18 others missing, mostly in the country’s southern region.

Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said Hurricane Melissa killed at least 20 people in Petit-Goâve, including 10 children.

It also damaged more than 160 homes and destroyed 80 others.

Officials warned that 152 disabled people in Haiti’s southern region required emergency food assistance.

More than 11,600 people remained sheltered in Haiti because of the storm.

AP video shot by: Pierre Luxama