Dozens of people are dead after Hurricane Melissa hit several islands in the Caribbean. Although initial forecasts indicated that the storm was expected to move out to the Atlantic after hitting Jamaica, it continues to cause destruction across Haiti and Cuba.
The storm is expected to continue moving through the Bahamas on Wednesday. Melissa still has maximum sustained winds of around 100 miles per hour, and the storm is still growing. The National Hurricane Center says Melissa is causing at least tropical storm-force winds nearly 200 miles from the eye.
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Initial impacts
Early reports from Haiti indicate that flooding caused by Melissa killed at least 40 people, including 20 in Petit-Goâve on the country’s southern coast, according to The Associated Press. Before the storm made landfall, it caused at least three deaths in Jamaica, an additional three in Haiti and one death in the Dominican Republic. More reports of fatalities continued to come in throughout Wednesday.
In Cuba, officials say about 735,000 people are still in shelters. There, homes collapsed, roofs blew off and mountain roads are still blocked. Officials said the southwest and northwest corners of the island were the most heavily impacted.
In Jamaica, another 25,000 people remained in shelters Wednesday, and officials from the southwest area of the island say much of the local rescue infrastructure — hospitals, police and other emergency services — was damaged or destroyed. Jamaica’s government officials say they hope to reopen the airport by Thursday to fly in additional aid.
Recovery efforts starting
More than three-quarters of Jamaica does not have power as of Wednesday afternoon. The Jamaica Public Service Company, which handles the island’s electric grid, said its crews are starting damage assessments Wednesday in a post on X.
The U.S. State Department said it would deploy a “regional disaster response team” across the Caribbean. The U.K. pledged $3.3 million to help purchase emergency supplies and food in the region.
