Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon told a briefing that authorities had "quite credible" reports of possibly five additional deaths but had not yet been able to confirm.

"We're still at 19 confirmed, but we do expect that will change today," she said.

Kingston's international airport, which reopened Thursday, has already received 13 cargo relief flights, and at least 20 more are expected Friday, Transportation Minister Daryl Vaz said.

All three of the island's international airports were set to resume operations by Saturday morning, he added, for both humanitarian and commercial flights.

The United States was sending between eight and 10 helicopters to the Caribbean nation that would be large enough to transfer patients.

"I would say to all of those persons who are still out here waiting and looking up in the sky that you will start to see" and "hear a lot of activity," he said.

"You probably are feeling that you are forgotten. You are not forgotten."

The hurricane hit western Jamaica the hardest, and people there remain cut off with communications and electricity down.

"The devastation on the west is unimaginable," said Morris Dixon, adding her thanks for the incoming aid: "The relief and the support that we have gotten is overwhelming."

Hurricane Melissa swiftly became one of the most powerful storms on record, reaching an intensity scientists said was made four times more likely because of human-caused climate change.

The system roared through the Caribbean and has claimed the lives of at least 49 people across the region.

It devastated parts of Jamaica as well as Cuba, and as of Friday was moving rapidly away from Bermuda.