‘Disaster of Unprecedented Catastrophe’: Hurricane Melissa Leaves Jamaica With Billions of Dollars in Damage

A weakened — but still powerful — Hurricane Melissa crossed Cuba on Wednesday after a devastating hit on Jamaica as a Category 5 storm.The storm had sustained winds of 185 miles per hour as it made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday and tore roofs off of buildings, caused heavy flooding, and landslides.The Red Cross has called Hurricane Melissa a “disaster of unprecedented catastrophe,” Sky News reports.One new death was reported in Jamaica. An infant died when a tree fell on them, an administrator in the prime minister’s office told a local radio station. The storm was already blamed for seven deaths across the Caribbean.About three-quarters of all power was off in Jamaica as the damage came into view on Wednesday. The island’s power provider, Jamaica Public Service, said in an X post that it was waiting for permission from the government to deploy crews to start repairing the power infrastructure.Jamaican officials say the hurricane caused extensive damage in the southwestern and northwestern areas of the country. Much of the parish of St. Elizabeth was left under water from the storm. A large landslide buried roads in the small town of Santa Cruz and homes were flooded.Melissa was expected to bring an additional 3 to 6 inches of rain across Jamaica on Wednesday, with storm totals between 12 to 24 inches were expected. The totals could reach 30 inches over mountainous terrain, according to forecasters.“Take heart. It could have been worse,” a state minister in the prime minister’s office, Senator Abka Fitz-Henley, said, according to the Associated Press. “I know people have suffered significant devastation.”AccuWeather put the preliminary estimate of damage and economic loss estimates on the island at $22 billion with the number potentially growing as the full extent of the damage is reviewed.“The damage from this historic hurricane landfall is devastating. This was the first direct strike from a Category 5 hurricane in Jamaica’s recorded history,” the chief meteorologist with AccuWeather, Jonathan Porter said. “Melissa brought catastrophic flooding and wind damage across the island. People in western Jamaica could be stranded for days or weeks. It will be incredibly difficult for emergency aid and resources to reach the hardest hit areas.”The government hopes to reopen all the airports Thursday so tourists can leave and relief supplies can be flown in.“Our country has been ravaged by Hurricane Melissa but we will rebuild and we will do so even better than before,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness stated in an X post.Hurricane Melissa was crossing Cuba on Wednesday morning as a Category 3 storm with top sustained winds of 105 miles per hour. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans were riding out the storm in shelters. The National Hurricane Center warned that Melissa would continue to bring damaging winds, flooding rains, and dangerous storm surge to Cuba and the Bahamas on Wednesday.For eastern Cuba, storm total rainfall of 10 to 20 inches was expected with up to 25 inches expected possible in mountainous areas. There were concerns about life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flash flooding with numerous landslides in the higher elevations of Cuba.The southeastern area of the Bahamas was forecast to receive up to 10 inches of rain from the storm.

‘Disaster of Unprecedented Catastrophe’: Hurricane Melissa Leaves Jamaica With Billions of Dollars in Damage

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