At least 2 dozen dead as Hurricane Melissa hurtles through Cuba, Haiti – National

The devastating impacts of Hurricane Melissa continue to be felt after the record-breaking storm, which first hit Jamaica, then tore through Cuba and Haiti on Wednesday, left more than two dozen people dead and 18 missing across the Caribbean, according to The Associated Press.

The Category 5 storm, with winds approaching 300 kilometres per hour when it made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday, devastated homes, flooded roads, uprooted trees and toppled power lines before moving on to eastern Cuba, where the full extent of the damage is still being assessed and 735,000 people remain in shelters, according to officials.

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Hurricane Melissa leaves path of destruction across Caribbean

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Despite weakening between hitting Jamaica on Tuesday and arriving in Cuba on Wednesday, the storm scattered roofs and flooded homes in the country’s second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba, leaving mountain roads blocked and downed power lines in its wake.

The most significant destruction was concentrated in the southwest and northwest of the island, the AP reported.

“That was hell. All night long, it was terrible,” Reinaldo Charon in Santiago de Cuba told the outlet.

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Data from the UN aid co-ordination office (OCHA) found that Melissa ranked among the most intense storms to hit Cuba in decades, with winds reaching nearly 222 km/h and rainfall totals exceeding 145 millimetres over a two-day period.

Meanwhile, in Haiti, at least 25 people have died and 18 are missing as a result of the storm, the country’s Civil Protection Agency said in a statement Wednesday, according to the AP.

Twenty of those reported dead in Haiti and 10 of the missing are from a southern coastal town where flooding collapsed dozens of homes.

At least eight are dead in Jamaica, according to the AP.

In the parish of St. Elizabeth, police Supt. Coleridge Minto told Nationwide News Network on Wednesday that authorities had recovered at least four bodies in southwest Jamaica.

One death was reported in the west when a tree fell on a baby, state minister Abka Fitz-Henley told Nationwide News Network.

On Thursday, more than 13,000 people were in shelters, according to officials.

However, it’s still too early to determine the extent of the damage due to power outages and the hazardous conditions that persist in the region, Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s education minister, said.

“Recovery will take time, but the government is fully mobilized,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness told the AP in a statement.

“Relief supplies are being prepared, and we are doing everything possible to restore normalcy quickly.”

Black River, in Jamaica’s southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth, is suffering “catastrophic” damage, according to its mayor, Richard Solomon, who said that was a “mild term based on what they are observing.”

The parish’s emergency services have been unable to answer calls due to the demolition of its infrastructure, Solomon explained. Nonetheless, aid is on its way.

Jamaican Transportation Minister Daryl Vaz said two of the island’s airports will open on Wednesday to receive emergency relief flights only, as UN agencies and international governments begin flying in supplies.

“The devastation is enormous,” Vaz said. “We need all hands on deck to recover stronger and to help those in need at this time.”

On Wednesday, the UN allocated US$4 million each to Haiti and Cuba from its Central Emergency Fund.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that the U.S. is sending emergency response teams to assist in recovery efforts in the Caribbean, including Cuba.

Experts say Melissa, now a Category 2 hurricane, is expected to bring dangerous winds, flooding and storm surges to the Bahamas on Thursday, followed by Bermuda.

Before landfall, Melissa had already been blamed for three deaths in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.

— with files from The Associated Press

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