Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean on Wednesday, leaving at least 25 dead in Haiti and causing devastation across Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. The Category 5 storm made history as the strongest hurricane to directly hit Jamaica, with sustained winds of 185 mph (298 kph).
In Haiti, heavy rains triggered floods in Petit-Goave, a coastal town 64 km west of Port-au-Prince, killing at least 25 people, including 10 children, and leaving 12 missing. Over 1,000 homes were flooded, particularly affecting displaced families already struggling with gang violence and food shortages. Residents described the flooding as life-threatening, saying aid arrived too slowly.
Melissa first hit Jamaica on Tuesday, causing severe damage in areas still recovering from last year’s Hurricane Beryl. Preliminary estimates by AccuWeather suggest the storm caused $22 billion in damages and could take a decade to rebuild. About 77% of the island was without electricity, and hundreds of communities were left isolated.
In Cuba, authorities evacuated around 735,000 people as the storm approached, particularly in Santiago province. No deaths were reported, but President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned of ongoing rains and widespread crop damage. Melissa’s interaction with Cuba’s mountainous terrain caused heavy rainfall, compounding existing shortages of food, fuel, and medicine.
Meteorologists at AccuWeather ranked Melissa as the third-most intense Caribbean hurricane, after Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988. Scientists attribute the rapid intensification to warming ocean waters fueled by greenhouse gas emissions, prompting calls from Caribbean leaders for aid and reparations.
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) urged wealthier nations to increase contributions to the U.N.’s “loss and damage” fund, established in 2023 to help developing nations recover from climate-related disasters.
Residents across affected areas described the storm’s destruction in personal terms.
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