Hurricane Melissa left dozens dead and widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica, where roofless homes, toppled utility poles and water-logged furniture dominated the landscape Wednesday.
Flooding from the storm killed 25 people in Haiti and at least one death was reported in Jamaica, where Melissa roared ashore with top sustained winds of 185 mph, leaving widespread damage and power outages.
Melissa tore off roofs and uprooted trees in eastern Cuba, but the full extent of the damage wasn’t immediately known.
“That was hell. All night long, it was terrible,” said Reinaldo Charon, 52, who was one of the few people who ventured out on Wednesday morning in Santiago de Cuba, covered by a plastic sheet to keep dry from the intermittent rain.
Jean Bertrand Subrème, mayor of the southern Haitian coastal town of Petit-Goâve, told The Associated Press that dozens of homes collapsed and people were still trapped under rubble as of Wednesday morning.
“I am overwhelmed by the situation,” he said as he pleaded with the government to help rescue victims.
Wednesday afternoon, Melissa had top sustained winds of 100 mph and was moving northeast at 14 mph, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centered about 150 miles south of the central Bahamas.
Melissa’s center is forecast to move through southeastern Bahamas later Wednesday, generating up to 7 feet of storm surge in the area. By late Thursday, Melissa is expected to pass just west of Bermuda.
The hurricane could worsen Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which already has led to prolonged power blackouts, as well as fuel and food shortages.
“There will be a lot of work to do. We know there will be a lot of damage,” Cuban President Miguel DÃaz-Canel said in a televised address, and urged the population not to underestimate the power of Melissa, “the strongest ever to hit national territory.”
Government officials in the Bahamas are urging people to ensure their safety amid final preparations for the storm’s arrival later today in the southeast and central parts of the country.
“This is your final opportunity to ensure your safety. If you have not already found secure shelter, please do so immediately,” said Leon Lundy, disaster risk management minister, in a press briefing last night.
According to the authorities, 1,348 residents had been safely evacuated from the southern Bahamas.
“This is the most extensive pre-event evacuation exercise undertaken by the government of The Bahamas in recent history,” said Aaron Sargent, managing director of the Bahamas Disaster Risk Management Authority.
Jamaica rushes to assess the damage
Authorities in Jamaica are assessing the damage from Melissa after it tore through the island nation Tuesday as the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record by pressure, and the strongest to make landfall since 2019.
Jamaican officials reported complications in assessing the damage, while the National Hurricane Center said the local government had lifted the tropical storm warning.
“There’s a total communication blackout on that side,” Richard Thompson, acting director general of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, told the Nationwide News Network. More than half a million customers were without power late Tuesday.
Extensive damage was reported in parts of Clarendon in the south and in the southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth, which was “underwater,” said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council. He said the storm damaged four hospitals and left one without power, forcing officials to evacuate 75 patients.
Santa Cruz town in St. Elizabeth parish was devastated. A landslide blocked main roads. Streets were reduced to mud pits. Residents swept water from homes as they tried to salvage belongings. Winds ripped off part of the roof at St. Elizabeth Technical High School, a designated public shelter.
“I never see anything like this before in all my years living here,” resident Jennifer Small said.
“The entire hillside came down last night,” said another resident, Robert James.
The government said it hopes to reopen all of Jamaica’s airports as early as Thursday to ensure quick distribution of emergency relief supplies.
The U.S. government said it was deploying a disaster response team and search and rescue personnel to the region. And the State Department said non-emergency personnel and family members of U.S. government employees were authorized to leave Jamaica because of the storm’s impact.
Cuba rides out the storm
People in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba began clearing debris around the collapsed walls of their homes on Wednesday after Hurricane Melissa made landfall in the region hours earlier.
“Life is what matters,” said Alexis Ramos, a 54-year-old fisherman as he surveyed his destroyed home and shielded himself from the intermittent rain with a yellow raincoat. “Repairing this costs money, a lot of money.”
Meanwhile, local media showed images of the Juan Bruno Zayas Clinical Hospital with severe damage: glass scattered across the floor, waiting rooms in ruins and masonry walls crumpled on the ground.
In Cuba, parts of Granma province, especially the municipal capital, JiguanÃ, were underwater, said Gov. Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez. More than 15 inches of rain was reported in JiguanÃ’s settlement of Charco Redondo.
The hurricane could worsen Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which already has led to prolonged power blackouts, along with fuel and food shortages.
“There will be a lot of work to do. We know there will be a lot of damage,” Cuban President Miguel DÃaz-Canel said in a televised address, and urged the population not to underestimate the power of Melissa,.
Wednesday afternoon, Melissa had top sustained winds of 100 mph and was moving northeast at 14 mph according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centered about 150 miles south of the central Bahamas.
Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center, said the storm began affecting the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday.
“The storm is growing in size,” he said, noting that tropical storm force winds now extend almost 200 miles from the center.
Melissa’s center is forecast to move through southeastern Bahamas later Wednesday, generating up to 7 feet of storm surge in the area. By late Thursday, Melissa is expected to pass just west of Bermuda.
Before landfall, Melissa had already been blamed for three deaths in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.
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