Hurricane Melissa devastates the Caribbean, killing at least 20 and leaving parts of Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti in ruins.
Hurricane Melissa was moving towards Bermuda on Thursday after ripping a path of destruction through the Caribbean that left at least 20 people dead in Haiti, and parts of Jamaica and Cuba in ruins.
The Bahamas government discontinued a hurricane warning for its central and southeastern regions, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory early Thursday.
“Follow advice of local officials as you may need to remain sheltered after the storm due to downed power lines and flooding,” the NHC warned.
Flooding is expected to subside in the Bahamas later on Thursday, although it could persist in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the US weather bureau added.
The storm was still 685 miles (1,105 kilometers) southwest of Bermuda as of 5:00 am US Eastern time (0900 GMT), according to the NHC.
“Hurricane Melissa is expected to pass Bermuda as a Category 1 Hurricane. While not a direct hit, the system will pass close enough to warrant precautionary safety measures,” the Bermuda government posted on social media.
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After Melissa left Cuban shores, residents started assessing their losses, with President Miguel Diaz-Canel describing the damage as “extensive.”
In the east of the communist island, which is battling its worst economic crisis in decades, people struggled through flooded and collapsed homes and inundated streets.
The storm smashed windows, downed power cables and mobile communications, and ripped off roofs and tree branches.
Cuban authorities said about 735,000 people had been evacuated — mainly in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Holguin and Guantanamo.
In Santiago de Cuba, homemaker Mariela Reyes, 55, recounted how violent winds lifted the roof off her humble dwelling and dumped it a block away.
She managed to save her TV set and a few small appliances from her flooded home.
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“It’s not easy to lose… the little you have,” Reyes told AFP.
‘Disaster area’
Pope Leo offered prayers from the Vatican, while the United States said it was in contact with the governments of Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.
“We have rescue and response teams heading to affected areas along with critical lifesaving supplies,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X, without mentioning ideological foe Cuba.
The UK government announced £2.5 million (about $3.3 million) in emergency funding for the region.
In Jamaica, UN resident coordinator Dennis Zulu told reporters Melissa had brought “tremendous, unprecedented devastation of infrastructure, of property, roads, network connectivity.”
Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the tropical island famed for tourism a “disaster area” — many homes were destroyed and about 25,000 people sought refuge in shelters.
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Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon told CNN that officials had been unable to confirm reports of deaths “because we have not been able to get to some of the hardest-hit areas.”
‘Everything is gone’
At least 20 people in southern Haiti, including 10 children, were killed in floods caused as the hurricane shaved past earlier in the week, according to civil defense agency head Emmanuel Pierre.
Ten more were missing.
“People have been killed, houses have been swept away by the water,” resident Steeve Louissaint told AFP in the coastal town of Petit-Goave, where the Digue River burst its banks.
Hurricane Melissa tied the 1935 record for the most intense storm ever to make landfall when it battered Jamaica on Tuesday, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
In Seaford Town, farmer and businessman Christopher Hacker saw his restaurant and nearby banana plantations flattened.
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“Everything is gone,” he told AFP. “It will take a lot to recover from this.”
The full extent of Melissa’s damage is not yet clear. A comprehensive assessment could take days with communications networks disrupted across the region.
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said such mega-storms “are a brutal reminder of the urgent need to step up climate action on all fronts, as they bring massive human and economic costs in every part of the world, and those costs grow faster and bigger each year.”
