monster storm leaves dozens dead across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica

Jamaica rushes to assess damage

Richard Thompson, acting director general of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, told Nationwide News Network that Jamaican authorities reported difficulties assessing damage due to the outages, and that there was a “total communications blackout” in the areas.

“This is not going to be an easy road, Jamaica,” said Desmond McKenzie, vice president of the Jamaica Disaster Risk Management Council.

At least one death has been reported in western Jamaica after a tree fell on a baby, state minister Abka Fitz-Henley told Nationwide News Network.

Dixon said Prime Minister Andrew Holness planned to fly over the hardest-hit areas, where crews were still trying to access the areas and assess the extent of damage.

Nearby, 84-year-old David Muschette sat among the rubble of his roofless home. He said he lost everything when he showed up, scattering his wet clothes and furniture on the grass outside, with part of his roof partially blocking the road.

“I need help,” he pleaded.

The government has said it hopes to reopen all of Jamaica’s airports as early as Thursday to ensure rapid distribution of emergency relief supplies.

The United States will send rescue and response teams to assist rescue efforts in the Caribbean, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday. He said government officials are coordinating with leaders in Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.

Cuba is weathering the storm

People in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba began clearing the debris around the collapsed walls of their houses after Hurricane Melissa reached the region hours ago.

“What matters is life,” said Alexis Ramos, a 54-year-old fisherman, as he surveyed his destroyed home and protected himself from intermittent rain with a yellow raincoat. “It costs money to fix this, a lot of money.”

Meanwhile, local media showed images of the Juan Bruno Zayas Clinical Hospital severely damaged: glass shattered on the floor, waiting rooms in ruins, and stone walls collapsed to the ground.

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Governor Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez said that part of the Granma province in Cuba was flooded, especially the municipal capital Jiguani. More than 40 centimeters of rain were reported to have fallen in the Charco Redondo settlement of Jiguani.

The hurricane could worsen Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which has already caused prolonged power outages and fuel and food shortages.

“There will be a lot of work to be done. We know there will be a lot of damage,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a televised speech, urging the public not to underestimate Melissa’s power.

At around 9.30am (AEDT) on Thursday, the storm was located 130 kilometers southeast of the center of the Bahamas and was moving northeast at 26 kilometers per hour, according to the latest report from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami.

Melissa’s maximum sustained winds were 150 km/h, making it a Category 1 storm.

It began affecting the southeastern Bahamas on Thursday morning (AEDT), according to the NHC. Authorities in the Bahamas were evacuating dozens of people from the southeast corner of the archipelago ahead of Melissa’s arrival.

The center of Melissa is predicted to pass through the southeastern Bahamas, causing storm surges of up to 2 meters in the region. The storm is then expected to pass just west of Bermuda.

NHC director Michael Brennan said the storm “has grown in size,” noting that storm-force winds now extend almost 200 miles from the center.

Before making landfall, Melissa was blamed for three deaths in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.

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