While Hurricane Melissa, downgraded to category 1, reaches Bermuda, the number of victims increases on the other islands already crossed by the storm. Hurricane Melissa left 19 dead in Jamaica, as reported this Thursday, October 30, by the Minister of Information, Dana Morris Dixon. Nine people died on the western end of the island, the minister said.
In Haiti, not directly affected by the hurricane but victim of heavy rains, authorities reported at least 30 deaths, including ten children. According to the latest reports, twenty people are still missing. The majority of these deaths, 23 precisely, were caused by the flooding of a river in the southwest of the country.
Hurricane Melissa was the most powerful to make landfall in 90 years when it hit Jamaica on Tuesday, October 28, as a category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of around 300 km/h.
“Immense and unprecedented destruction”
In Jamaica, Cuba and even Haiti, the hurricane left territories devastated. In Santiago de Cuba, for example, Cuba’s second city, sections of houses collapsed and the tin roofs did not hold. The city is left without electricity, many poles are lying on the ground. The roof of Mariela Reyes’ house flew off. “It’s not easy to lose everything you have. The little you have,” this 55-year-old woman sighs discouraged.
In El Cobre, about twenty kilometers away, the sound of hammers echoed on Thursday under the returning sun: those whose roofs had fallen off were trying to repair them with the help of friends and neighbors, AFP noted. Others are venturing outside in search of food, and some stores are beginning to reopen.
In Jamaica “there has been immense and unprecedented destruction of infrastructure, property, roads, communications networks and energy,” said Dennis Zulu, UN coordinator in several Caribbean countries, from Kingston.
“Our preliminary assessments show that the country has been devastated at levels never seen before,” he added, referring to one million people affected, on an island of 2.8 million inhabitants. According to the government, the Jamaican military is working to clear blocked roads.
Foreign aid flows
Melissa will land in Bermuda on Thursday local time. “Conditions in Bermuda will deteriorate rapidly this afternoon and tonight,” the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) indicates in its latest update, reporting winds measured at 165 kilometers per hour.
The authorities of the Bahamas archipelago, however, “cancelled the hurricane warning” for the central and southern Bahamas, as well as for the Turks and Caicos Islands.
At the same time, foreign aid begins to flow. In particular, the United States “sent relief and intervention teams to the affected areas, as well as vital supplies,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in X. The United Kingdom will provide emergency financial aid of 2.5 million pounds (2.8 million euros) to the affected countries, and France will also send an aid shipment to Jamaica.
Source: BFM TV
