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.

Before the storm barreled north over Cuba, at least seven people died across the Caribbean as the storm approached Jamaica. See the storm's impact on Cuba.

Hurricane Melissa is grinding across eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm after pummeling Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

The United States stands prepared to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to Cuba following the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Melissa, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department had issued a formal Declaration of Humanitarian Assistance for Cuba, where U.S. government aid is rare.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (AP) — The rumble of large machinery, whine of chain saws and chopping of machetes echoed through communities across the northern Caribbean on Thursday as they dug out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa and surveyed the damage left behind.

Hurricane Melissa had weakened some by Wednesday morning after hitting eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of roughly 120 mph, bringing life-threatening flooding, landslides and dangerous winds to the island a day after it bombarded Jamaica .

Now, as a weakened category 2 storm, there have been some impacts felt in the Bahamas, with Melissa tracking toward Bermuda on Thursday. Beyond that, as can be fairly typical, Melissa will weaken so that it will no longer be a hurricane or tropical storm as it moves into the North Atlantic.

The U.N. General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to condemn the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba for a 33rd year.