Hurricane Melissa left dozens dead and caused widespread destruction across the Caribbean, where roofless homes, toppled utility poles and wrecked furniture dominated the landscape.
At least 25 people have died across Haiti and 18 are missing, the country's Civil Protection Agency said on Wednesday. Twenty of those reported dead and 10 of the missing are from a southern coastal town where flooding collapsed dozens of homes. At least eight are dead in Jamaica.
In Cuba, officials reported collapsed houses, blocked mountain roads and roofs blown off buildings, with the heaviest destruction concentrated in the south-west and north-west. Authorities said about 735,000 people remained in shelters.
In Jamaica, more than 77 per cent of the island was without power and 25,000 people were packed into shelters on Wednesday after the storm ripped roofs off their homes and left them temporarily displaced.
“Recovery will take time, but the government is fully mobilised,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. “Relief supplies are being prepared, and we are doing everything possible to restore normalcy quickly.”
Jamaican Transportation Minister Daryl Vaz said two of the island’s airports would reopen on Wednesday to relief flights only, with UN agencies and dozens of non-profit agencies on standby to distribute basic goods.
“The devastation is enormous,” he said. “We need all hands on deck to recover stronger and to help those in need at this time.”
St Elizabeth Police Superintendent Coleridge Minto said that authorities had found at least four bodies in south-west Jamaica. One death was reported in the west when a tree fell on a baby.
Devastation in Haiti
Hurricane Melissa damaged more than 160 homes and destroyed 80 others in the Haitian town of Petit-Goave, where 10 of the 20 people killed there were children, Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said on Wednesday.
Lawyer Charly Saint-Vil said he saw bodies lying among the debris after the storm as he walked the streets of the small coastal town where he grew up. People screamed as they searched for their missing children, he said.
“People have lost everything,” Mr Saint-Vil said.
Although the immediate threat of the storm has passed, Mr Saint-Vil said Petit-Goave's residents were living in fear about access to medicine, water and food in the coming days given the political instability in Haiti.
“We don’t know what will happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” he said.
For now, neighbours are helping each other to source necessities and find places to sleep.
Clean-up in Cuba
People in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba began clearing debris around the collapsed walls of their homes on Wednesday after Melissa made landfall in the region hours earlier.
Local media showed images of the Juan Bruno Zayas Clinical Hospital with severe damage, including glass scattered across the floor, waiting rooms in ruins and masonry walls crumpled.
“As soon as conditions allow, we will begin the recovery. We are ready,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on X.
The hurricane could worsen Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which already has led to prolonged power blackouts along with fuel and food shortages.
Trump offers help
“We’re watching it closely, and we’re prepared to move,” US President Donald Trump said.
Mr Trump said he had marvelled at the storm’s strength. “I’ve never seen that before. I guess it can get that high but I’ve never seen it,” he added.
The US said on Wednesday that it had gathered disaster relief teams to head to the Caribbean.
“The United States is in close contact with the governments of Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic and the Bahamas as they confront the devastating impacts of Hurricane Melissa,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X.
“We have rescue and response teams heading to affected areas along with critical, life-saving supplies.”
Bearing down on Bahamas
Forecasters expect Melissa, now a category two hurricane, to bring dangerous winds, flooding and a storm surge to the Bahamas on Thursday.
Authorities were evacuating dozens of people from the archipelago’s south-east corner ahead of Melissa’s arrival. By late on Thursday, Melissa is expected to pass just west of Bermuda.
