Hurricane Melissa has left dozens dead and caused widespread devastation across Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica, where roofless homes, toppled power lines, and water-damaged furniture littered the landscape.
In Jamaica’s St Elizabeth parish, a landslide blocked major roads in the town of Santa Cruz, turning streets into deep mud pits on Wednesday, reports Breaking News.
Residents worked to sweep floodwater from their homes as they tried to salvage what little remained of their belongings.
High winds tore away part of the roof at a secondary school that had been serving as a public shelter, reports Breaking News.
“I never see anything like this before in all my years living here,” said resident Jennifer Small, reports Breaking News.
The full extent of the storm’s damage remained uncertain as dangerous conditions and widespread power outages continued to affect the region.
“It is too early for us to say definitively,” said Jamaica’s education minister, Dana Morris Dixon, reports Breaking News.
Melissa made landfall on Tuesday in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane with winds reaching 185 mph (295 kph), ranking among the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded. It then weakened as it moved toward Cuba, but its destructive impact was felt far beyond its direct path, reports Breaking News.
Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said on Wednesday that at least 25 people had been killed and 18 others were missing.
Twenty of those deaths and ten of the missing came from a southern coastal town where flooding destroyed dozens of houses, reports Breaking News.
In Jamaica, at least eight fatalities were confirmed.
Cuban officials reported extensive damage, including collapsed buildings, blocked mountain roads, and roofs torn off structures in several provinces on Wednesday, reports Breaking News.
Authorities stated that roughly 735,000 people remained in emergency shelters.
“That was hell. All night long, it was terrible,” said Reinaldo Charon from Santiago de Cuba, reports Breaking News.
The 52-year-old was among the few residents seen outdoors on Wednesday, covered by a plastic sheet as intermittent rain continued to fall.
Meteorologists said the now Category 1 storm is expected to bring fierce winds, flooding, and storm surges to the Bahamas on Wednesday night, reports Breaking News.
In Jamaica, more than 25,000 residents were staying in shelters after the hurricane tore roofs from homes, leaving many temporarily displaced.
Ms Dixon reported that 77% of the island was still without power, reports Breaking News.
The outages have made it difficult to assess the destruction because of “a total communication blackout” in some areas, according to Richard Thompson, acting director general of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, who spoke to the Nationwide News Network radio station.
“Recovery will take time, but the government is fully mobilised,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in a statement, reports Breaking News.
“Relief supplies are being prepared, and we are doing everything possible to restore normalcy quickly,” he added, reports Breaking News.
Officials in the south-western Jamaican town of Black River, home to around 5,000 residents, appealed for urgent aid during a news briefing on Wednesday.
“Catastrophic is a mild term based on what we are observing,” said mayor Richard Solomon, reports Breaking News.
Mr Solomon explained that the local emergency response system had been crippled by the storm.
Flooding overwhelmed hospitals, police departments, and other emergency services, leaving them unable to function, reports Breaking News.
Jamaica’s transportation minister Daryl Vaz said two of the country’s airports would reopen Wednesday to accommodate relief flights only, as UN agencies and aid groups prepared to deliver supplies.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced on X that America would send rescue and recovery teams to assist in the Caribbean, reports Breaking News.
St Elizabeth Police Superintendent Coleridge Minto said on Wednesday that authorities had discovered at least four bodies in south-western Jamaica.
One death was reported in the west when a falling tree struck a baby, according to state minister Abka Fitz-Henley, reports Breaking News.
Before making landfall, Melissa had already been blamed for three deaths in Jamaica, three in Haiti, and one in the Dominican Republic.
Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency reported that Hurricane Melissa damaged more than 160 homes and destroyed 80 others in the town of Petit-Goave, where ten of the twenty victims were children, reports Breaking News.
Lawyer Charly Saint-Vil, 30, said he saw bodies among the wreckage as he walked the streets of his hometown after the storm.
People screamed as they searched desperately for their missing children, he said, reports Breaking News.
“People have lost everything,” Mr Saint-Vil said, reports Breaking News.
Though the storm has passed, Mr Saint-Vil said the residents of Petit-Goave are now gripped by fear over access to medicine, food, and clean water in the coming days amid Haiti’s ongoing political turmoil.
“We don’t know what will happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” he said, reports Breaking News.
For now, neighbours are helping each other find essential supplies and temporary shelter.
Mr Saint-Vil said he is housing several friends who lost their homes in his small apartment, reports Breaking News.
“What I can do, I will do it, but it’s not easy because the situation is really complicated for everyone,” he said, reports Breaking News.
In Cuba’s eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, residents began clearing debris from collapsed homes after Melissa made landfall there early Wednesday.
“Life is what matters,” said 54-year-old fisherman Alexis Ramos as he inspected his destroyed house, using a yellow raincoat to shield himself from the drizzle, reports Breaking News.
“Repairing this costs money, a lot of money,” he added, reports Breaking News.
Local outlets shared footage showing severe destruction at the Juan Bruno Zayas Clinical Hospital — shattered glass on the floors, crumbling walls, and waiting areas reduced to rubble.
“As soon as conditions allow, we will begin the recovery. We are ready,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on X, reports Breaking News.
Experts warned that the hurricane could deepen Cuba’s ongoing economic crisis, which has already led to chronic fuel shortages, food scarcity, and lengthy blackouts.
Cuba’s National Institute of Hydraulic Resources reported rainfall of up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) in Charco Redondo and 14 inches (36 centimeters) at Las Villas Reservoir, reports Breaking News.
By Wednesday evening, Melissa’s sustained winds had decreased to 90 mph (150 kph) as the storm moved northeast at 16 mph (26 kph), according to the US National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The hurricane’s center was located around 80 miles (135 kilometers) southeast of the central Bahamas, reports Breaking News.
Authorities in the Bahamas began evacuating dozens of residents from the southeastern islands ahead of Melissa’s arrival.
Forecasters said the storm’s center would pass through the southeastern Bahamas later on Wednesday, producing storm surges of up to seven feet (two meters), reports Breaking News.
By late Thursday, Melissa is expected to pass just west of Bermuda, reports Breaking News.
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