Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a ferocious Category 5 storm, packing winds of 185 mph, leaving destruction in its wake. Authorities confirmed at least 30 fatalities, with the heaviest damage reported in the southwest parish of St. Elizabeth. Black River, described as “ground zero” by local officials, saw entire neighborhoods flattened, with roads and bridges washed away.
Power outages have left more than half a million Jamaicans in the dark, and rescue teams are struggling to reach communities cut off by floodwaters and landslides. Haiti also reported severe flooding, with at least 25 people dead and hundreds displaced.
As Melissa churned through Cuba heading for the Bahamas, officials have begun evacuating hundreds of thousands in low-lying coastal areas, warning of “life-threatening” conditions. Meteorologists caution that the storm’s slow pace and heavy rainfall could trigger additional flooding and landslides, compounding the disaster in mountainous regions.
Governments and relief agencies are racing to deliver aid to those stranded, with the scale of the devastation underscoring the Caribbean’s vulnerability to extreme weather events.
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