The scale of the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa is emerging, with dozens of people known to have died in Haiti and four deaths reported in Jamaica - and the storm is now approaching the Bahamas.

The storm has grown stronger than Katrina, and is threatening to be the Atlantic's first Category 5 landfall since 2019.

Hurricane Melissa is close to making landfall on Jamaica as by far the strongest storm to hit the island since records were first kept 174 years ago.

US forecasters say Hurricane Melissa will pass near or over Jamaica as a major storm early Tuesday, before moving toward Cuba later that night. It is then expected to track across the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday.