Hurricane Melissa heads to Bermuda as relief efforts intensify in Jamaica | Hurricane Melissa
Jamaica has stepped up efforts to clear roads and reach people in isolated and isolated areas after Hurricane Melissa devastated the Caribbean, as the country’s death toll rose to at least 19 and the storm moved towards Bermuda.
Jamaica’s capital Kingston escaped the worst damage and its main international airport reopened to allow flights carrying critical aid to land. Some towns were flooded and power lines and mobile network towers collapsed across much of the southwest, officials said.
“The destruction is enormous,” Transport Minister Daryl Vaz said.
Melissa’s total confirmed death toll rose to 44 on Thursday, according to official reports.
Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon said that the death toll in Jamaica is at least 19, but search and rescue efforts continue. The island’s toll was previously four.
This week, Jamaica was hit first and hardest when Melissa made landfall on Tuesday. It was the nation’s strongest hurricane since records began in 1851. The storm carried sustained winds of 185 mph, well above the minimum speed for a Category 5 storm, the strongest classification for hurricanes.
The British government announced on Thursday that it had chartered flights to the island. “The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has chartered a limited number of flights from Jamaica for British nationals who are unable to fly home commercially,” the statement said.
Hurricane Melissa was extremely devastating and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage, but accurate forecasts and government advice meant that many people who were able to reach shelter were protected.
25 people, including 10 children, died in the flood waters caused by the overflow of a river in Haiti. “It’s a sad moment for the country,” said Laurent Saint-Cyr, head of the interim presidential council of Haiti, the Caribbean’s most populous country.
Authorities in eastern Cuba had evacuated about 735,000 people from their homes as the storm approached. The incident occurred on Wednesday, and there was no official estimate of damage until Thursday, where no deaths were reported.
Photos taken from the southeastern state of Santiago de Cuba, where the storm passed, showed people surrounded by tree branches and debris.
Throughout the Bahamas archipelago, where Melissa is now passing, the government had flown nearly 1,500 people in one of its largest evacuation operations.
Despite losing some strength, Melissa still carried winds near 105 miles per hour (165 km/h), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center; It was downgraded to a category 2 storm but was still a hurricane.
About 700 miles northeast of the storm’s location on Thursday, Bermudians prepared to approach the expected storm in the evening local time. The hurricane is expected to weaken significantly on Friday.
