Cebu, a bustling province of more than 2.4 million people, declared a state of calamity to allow authorities to disburse emergency funds more rapidly to deal with the latest natural disaster.
"Seeing the videos and the photographs is one thing, but actually being there in person and seeing the damage is quite another," a local senator said. "It's heartbreaking."
Floods set off by record levels of rainfall have inundated a large swath of central Vietnam over the past days, with the UNESCO-listed former imperial capital Hue and Hoi An the worst hit.
A person died after reports of someone trapped in a flooded basement in Brooklyn, and a man died after a boiler room flooded in Manhattan, police said.
Complex and difficult humanitarian operations are underway in Jamaica and Cuba, with the U.S. government and nonprofits among those distributing vital aid.
The parish of St. Elizabeth, called Jamaica's "breadbasket," was "underwater," a government official said, after Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds.
The most powerful storm to hit the region since 1988 could inundate some areas of eastern Jamaica with up to 40 inches of rain. The arrival of its core has been delayed by stalling.
