Hurricane Melissa slams Cuba after leaving trail of ruin in Jamaica

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Hurricane Melissa slammed into Cuba early Wednesday, hours after wreaking havoc in neighboring Jamaica, the strongest storm on record to hit the Caribbean island nation.

Melissa hit the southern coast of eastern Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 km/h), the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

“Increasing storm surge, flash flooding and landslides, and damaging hurricane-force winds continue this morning,” the center said.

About 7,735,000 people were evacuated from their homes in eastern Cuba, officials said. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned on Tuesday that the storm would cause “significant damage” and urged people to heed evacuation orders.

Melissa was downgraded to a dangerous Category 3 hurricane on Tuesday after roaring ashore near the southwestern Jamaican town of New Hope.

‘Expect some loss of life’

In southwestern Jamaica, the parish of St. Elizabeth was left “underwater,” an official said, with more than 500,000 residents without power.

“The reports we have so far will include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, damage to residential and commercial property, and damage to our road infrastructure,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Hollis said on CNN after the storm passed.

Hollis said the government had not received any confirmed deaths from the storm, but given the strength of the hurricane and the extent of the damage, “we are expecting some loss of life.”

When daylight returned to Jamaica early Wednesday, eyewitness reports and videos on social media showed trees, washed-out roads and roofs thrown across fields and roadways.

Video from Montego Bay airport shows collapsed seating areas, broken glass and collapsing roofs.

Meteorologists at Acuweather said Melissa ranked as the third most intense hurricane in the Caribbean, behind Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988, and Gilbert in 1988 – the last major hurricane to make landfall in Jamaica.

Scientists say that hurricanes are intensifying with greater frequency as a result of ocean waters rising due to greenhouse gas emissions. Many Caribbean leaders have called on wealthy, heavy-polluting countries to provide references to the tropical island nation in the form of aid or debt relief.

Melissa’s winds weakened as the storm passed over Jamaica’s mountains, hitting highland communities vulnerable to landslides and flooding.

Local media reported at least three deaths in Jamaica during preparations for the storm, and a disaster coordinator suffered a stroke and was rushed to hospital at the onset of the storm. Late on Tuesday, many areas remained disconnected.

“Our country has been devastated by Hurricane Melissa but we will rebuild and we will do better than ever,” Prime Minister Hollins said earlier Wednesday.

In the Bahamas, the government ordered the evacuation of residents in the southern parts of the island, following Cuba’s move to the northeast.

Farther east, the combined island of Haiti and the Dominican Republic experienced days of rain that led to at least four deaths.

Cuban braces

The storm’s center, packing violent winds of more than 125 miles per hour and heavy rain, made landfall in Goma, a rural, mountainous area 25 miles west of Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second most populous city.

Authorities shut down power to virtually all of eastern Cuba, evacuating vulnerable areas and asking residents to shelter in the provincial capital of Santiago, a city of 400,000 people.

Rare videos posted by local media show torrents of gray rainwater running down streets in darkened towns at the base of Cuba’s Sierra Maestra mountains, far from the city.

Authorities early Wednesday reported widespread flooding in low-lying areas from Santiago to Guantanamo, where more than 35 percent of the population had been evacuated.

The timing couldn’t be worse for the communist-run Caribbean island. Cuba is already suffering from shortages of food, fuel, electricity and medicine that have complicated life for many, prompting a record-breaking exodus from the island from 2021.

President Diaz-Canel said Cuba had nevertheless mobilized 2,500 power line workers shortly after the storm passed over the island on Wednesday.

The hurricane was not expected to directly affect the capital, Havana.