It warned of possible coastal flooding as the storm accelerated north-eastward.
Authorities in the Bahamas have since lifted hurricane warnings for the central and southern islands, as well as for the Turks and Caicos.
The country’s Minister of State for Disaster Risk Management, Leon Lundy, urged residents to remain vigilant, saying: “Even a weakened hurricane retains the capacity to bring serious devastation.”
Nearly 1,500 people were evacuated from vulnerable areas in what officials described as one of the largest operations in Bahamian history.
While flooding has disrupted parts of the archipelago, the ministry of tourism said the majority of the country – including Nassau, Freeport, Eleuthera and the Abacos – remained largely unaffected and open to visitors.
Across the wider Caribbean, Melissa’s powerful winds have torn apart homes and buildings, uprooted trees and left tens of thousands without power.
In Cuba, residents of the country’s second-largest city Santiago de Cuba worked with machetes to clear streets buried in debris. President Miguel DÃaz-Canel said the hurricane had caused “considerable damage” but did not provide a casualty figure.
In Jamaica, the impact was most severe in the southwestern parish of St Elizabeth, where knee-deep mud and washed-out bridges left towns such as Black River cut off. On the road west out of the capital Kingston we saw minimal damage – some structures torn down, trees strewn across roads and gardens.