Cuba suffered “significant damage” after Melissa made landfall there Wednesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane. Around 140,000 people are cut off by rising river levels as the storm lashes the country and heads toward the Bahamas.
• Severe damage: Melissa hit Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record and caused major damage to public infrastructure. The full extent of the devastation there is unclear with some areas inaccessible.
Jamaica’s government has given the “all-clear” notice after Hurricane Melissa crossed over the island, a spokesperson said.
This means Jamaica’s utility companies – electricity, water and telecommunications – “should now commence restoration and recovery operations across the island,” the spokesperson said at a news conference Wednesday. However, she added that 77% of the country is without electricity.
The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, but it’s already clear that the country has been devastated by the storm. Melissa made landfall Tuesday afternoon as a powerful Category 5 with 185 mph winds. The western part of the island, including rural Manchester Parish and the nearby inland city of Santa Cruz in St. Elizabeth Parish, took the brunt of the storm.
The water around Jamaica had been simmering all summer. By the time Hurricane Melissa roared ashore Tuesday, that uber-warm Caribbean Sea had helped turn it into a monster: a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds, tied for the strongest hurricane to strike land in the Atlantic.
Experts say it’s a visceral example of what climate change can do to the planet’s most fearsome storms — supercharging them with more heat and moisture than Atlantic hurricanes of the past.
The key factors that drove Melissa’s intensity were a deep supply of hotter than average water and ideal atmospheric conditions for intensification. Similar dynamics have played out with the other two Category 5 storms seen this season, experts told CNN.
Three days before landfall, Melissa underwent two periods of rapid intensification as it traversed an ocean about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average for this time of year. Human-caused climate change made this heat far more likely, according to the research group Climate Central.
“This storm just pretty much did all of the things you wouldn’t want a storm to do,” said Daniel Swain, a climate researcher at UCLA. That Melissa hit its maximum potential intensity is especially noteworthy, he said, and its rapid intensification and other observed characteristics bear clear climate change fingerprints.
• Deadly storm: Seven people have died because of Melissa – three in Jamaica during storm preparations, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile,Hurricane-force winds continue to pound parts of Cuba while Melissa’s tropical storm-force winds are starting to stretch farther into the Bahamas.
The Bahamas are next in Melissa’s path: The hurricane is forecast to track between — or potentially over — Long Island and Crooked Island later this afternoon and evening. Hurricane warnings are in effect for the central and southeastern Bahamas while the nearby Turks and Caicos Islands are under a tropical storm warning.
The US State Department has committed support to recovery efforts across Caribbean countries hit by Hurricane Melissa.
In a statement made on X today, it said it was deploying a “regional disaster response team” and has “activated US-based Urban Search and Rescue teams to bolster response teams.”
“These teams are working with affected countries and local communities to determine what assistance is needed and with interagency, international, and U.S. military partners to coordinate emergency response efforts,” the statement added.
President Donald Trump said the US is keeping a close eye on the damage inflicted by Hurricane Melissa and is prepared to aid Jamaica in its recovery.
The UK said today it was deploying £2.5 million ($3.3 million) in emergency humanitarian funding to aid the recovery of Caribbean islands.
The aid package includes the delivery of shelter kits, water filters and blankets, the Foreign Office said. The supplies have already been positioned in Antigua to allow their swift delivery, it said, adding that British humanitarian and technical experts will be deployed to the region.
“Specialist rapid deployment teams have also been positioned in the region to provide consular assistance round the clock to British nationals affected by the devastation of Hurricane Melissa,” Cooper said.
As the core of Hurricane Melissa exits Cuba, forecasters are warning those in the southeastern and central Bahamas to make their final preparations with serious impacts possible there later Wednesday.
“In the Bahamas, preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the National Hurricane Center stressed.
Although Melissa has gone from a Category 5 hurricane over Jamaica to a Category 2 storm, the NHC said it will “remain a powerful hurricane when it moves across the Bahamas later today.”
Meanwhile, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, said that Hurricane Melissa had wrought “significant” damage on the island after it made landfall overnight.
“It has been a highly complex night, with significant damage reported,” Díaz-Canel wrote on X. “I urge our people to remain vigilant, to uphold discipline, and to continue taking all necessary precautions.”
The president said his government had prepared for the “worst-case scenario,” that the measures it took had been effective, and that recovery efforts will begin “as soon as conditions allow.”
More than 735,000 people had been evacuated by Tuesday evening, Díaz-Canel said in an earlier statement.
