Jamaica rushes to assess damage
Jamaican officials reported complications in assessing the damage because of outages, noting “a total communication blackout” in areas, Richard Thompson, acting director general of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, told the Nationwide News Network.
“It’s not going to be an easy road, Jamaica,” said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairperson of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council.
At least one death was reported in Jamaica’s west when a tree fell on a baby, state minister Abka Fitz-Henley told the Nationwide News Network.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness plans to fly over the most affected areas, where crews were still trying to access areas and determine the extent of the damage, Dixon said.
Nearby, David Muschette, 84, sat among the rubble of his roofless house. He said he lost everything as he pointed to his wet clothes and furniture strewn across the grass outside, while a part of his roof partially blocked the road.
“I need help,” he begged.
The government said it hopes to reopen all of Jamaica’s airports as early as Thursday to ensure the rapid distribution of emergency relief supplies.
The United States is sending rescue and response teams to assist in recovery efforts in the Caribbean, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X on Wednesday. He said that government officials were co-ordinating with leadership in Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.
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 after Hurricane Melissa made landfall in the region hours earlier.
Children ride on a bus evacuating people before the arrival of Hurricane Melissa in Canizo, a community in Santiago de Cuba.Credit: AP
“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, Jiguani, were underwater, said Governor Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez. More than 40 centimetres of rain was reported in Jiguani’s settlement of Charco Redondo.
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The hurricane could worsen Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which has already led to prolonged power blackouts and 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 Díaz-Canel said in a televised address, and urged the population not to underestimate the power of Melissa.
On Wednesday afternoon, Melissa had sustained winds of 155km/h and was moving northeast at 22 km/h, according to the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami. The hurricane was about 245 kilometres south of the central Bahamas.
Centre director Michael Brennan said the storm began affecting the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday and was “growing in size”, noting that storm force winds now extended almost 320km from the centre.
Melissa’s centre is forecast to move through the south-eastern Bahamas later on Wednesday, generating up to 2 metres 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.
AP
