Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica on Tuesday, prompting the prime minister to declare the country a disaster area, after the storm made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.

The UK will provide £2.5m in emergency humanitarian funding to Jamaica, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has announced. UK relief supplies and technical experts have also been deployed to assist with the disaster response and recovery from the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa.

The storm caused widespread damage in Jamaica to infrastructure and cut internet access for most of its two million people. Cuba has evacuated about 750,000 people ahead of the storm.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall over eastern Cuba early Wednesday as an "extremely dangerous" Category 3 storm, forecasters said, after pummeling Jamaica.

Hurricane Melissa— one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded—is now off Cuba’s eastern coast, after leaving a trail of destruction across the large island and its much smaller neighbor, Jamaica.

Disaster relief from the U.S. to Jamaica is delayed due to the government shutdown, but several private organizations are mobilizing to send relief after Hurricane Melissa. NBC News’ Jesse Kirsch spoke to one group packing up soup,