Melissa roared ashore near Jamaica’s southwestern town of New Hope, packing sustained winds of up to 295km/h, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), well above the minimum 252km/h wind speed of a Category 5 storm, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.In southwestern Jamaica, the parish of St Elizabeth was left “under water”An official stated that more than 500,000 people were without electricity.“The reports we have had so far include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing and commercial property and road infrastructure,” Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on CNN after the storm had passed.Holness said the government had not received confirmed storm-related fatalities, but given the strength of the hurricane and the extent of the damage, “we are expecting there would be some loss of life”.Melissa’s winds subsided to 233km/h, the NHC said, as the storm drifted past the mountainous island, lashing highland communities vulnerable to landslides and flooding.The hurricane was forecast to curve to the northeast on a trajectory toward Santiago de Cuba, Cuba’s second-most populous city.“We should be feeling its main influence this afternoon and tonight,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, in a statement published in Granma state newspaper, called on citizens to follow evacuation orders.“There will be a lot of work to do. We know this cyclone will cause significant damage.”The local media reported that at least three people were killed in Jamaica while storm preparations were underway. Also, a disaster coordinator had a stroke when the storm began. Late on Tuesday many areas remained cut off.JAMAICA’S ‘STORM OF THE CENTURY’No stranger to hurricanes, Jamaica had never before been known to take a direct hit from a Category 4 or 5 storm, and the government called for foreign aid as it prepared for Melissa’s arrival.Meteorologists at AccuWeather said Melissa ranked as the third most intense hurricane observed in the Caribbean after Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988, the last major storm to make landfall in Jamaica.“It’s a catastrophic situation,” the World Meteorological Organization’s tropical cyclone specialist Anne-Claire Fontan told a press briefing, warning of storm surges up to 4m high.“For Jamaica, it will be the storm of the century for sure.”Colin Bogle, an adviser to aid group Mercy Corps in Portmore, near Jamaica’s capital Kingston, said he had heard a loud explosion in the morning before everything went dark. He was sheltering with his grandmother when he heard a constant noise and saw trees being violently tossed by the wind.“People are scared. Memories of Hurricane Gilbert run deep, and there is frustration that Jamaica continues to face the worst consequences of a climate crisis we did not cause,” Scientists say storms are intensifying quicker and more frequently as oceans warm. Many Caribbean leaders have called on wealthy, heavy-polluting nations to provide reparations in the form of aid or debt relief to tropical island countries.Melissa’s size and strength ballooned as it churned over unusually tepid Caribbean waters, but forecasters warned its slow movement could prove particularly destructive.Food aid will be critical, Bogle said, and tools, vehicle parts and seeds for farmers. Like last year’s devastating Hurricane Beryl, Melissa crossed over some of Jamaica’s most productive agricultural zones.On Monday, Holness said the government had an emergency budget of $33m (R566m) and insurance and credit provisions for damage a little greater than Beryl.‘LIKE A ROARING LION’St Elizabeth’s only public hospital lost power and reported severe damage to one building, said local government minister Desmond McKenzie at a press conference. One building at the hospital suffered significant damage.“It’s like a roaring lion. It’s mad,” McKenzie stated that approximately 15,000 Jamaicans remained in temporary shelters late Tuesday. The government ordered the mandatory evacuation of 28,000 Jamaicans, but many people were hesitant to leave their homes.
2025-10-29 06:57:45
Jamaica’s strongest-ever storm, Hurricane Melissa, turns to Cuba
