Hurricane Melissa, the so-called “hurricane of the decade,” after battering Jamaica—leaving 530,000 people without electricity and inflicting massive damage on infrastructure—is moving toward Cuba, where evacuations have now reached 735,000. The storm is also expected to sweep through Haiti, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic.
In Jamaica, Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie said Tuesday afternoon that the southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth was “underwater,” with at least three families trapped inside their homes in the Black River community of western Jamaica.
It was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in Jamaica, with winds peaking at 295 km/h—far surpassing the 252 km/h mark required for a Category 5 storm, the highest category on the Saffir–Simpson scale.
It is even stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, killing around 1,400 people.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Hurricane Melissa, described as an “extremely dangerous storm,” weakened to a Category 3 hurricane before reaching Santiago de Cuba province on the island’s southern coast, with winds of 195 km/h, according to the NHC.
Residents across Cuba fled coastal areas as the storm approached, with local authorities declaring a “state of alert” in six eastern provinces.
Meanwhile, authorities in Haiti, east of Cuba, ordered the closure of schools, businesses, and government offices on Tuesday.
Sources: Guardian, New York Times, BBC
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