Hurricane Melissa hits Cuba hours after devastating Jamaica

HAVANA –

Hurricane Melissa slammed into Cuba

early on Oct 29, hours after causing devastation in neighbouring Jamaica as the strongest-ever storm on record to hit that Caribbean island nation.

Melissa hit the southern coast of eastern Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 120mph, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.

Around 735,000 people were

evacuated from their homes in eastern Cuba

as the storm approached, the authorities said. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned that the storm would cause “significant damage” and urged people to heed evacuation orders.

Melissa had weakened to a still dangerous Category 3 hurricane after roaring ashore near Jamaica’s south-western town of New Hope on Oct 28, packing sustained winds of up to 185mph, according to the Miami-based forecaster.

Category 5 storms, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, carry winds of 157mph and over.

In south-western Jamaica, the parish of St Elizabeth was left “underwater” with more than 500,000 residents without power, an official said.

“The reports that we have had so far would include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing and commercial property as well, and damage to our road infrastructure,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on CNN after the storm had passed.

He said the government had not received news of any confirmed deaths from the storm but given the strength of the hurricane and the extent of the damage, “we are expecting that there would be some loss of life”.

Meteorologists at AccuWeather said Melissa ranked as the third most intense hurricane observed in the Caribbean after Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988 – the last major storm to make landfall in Jamaica.

Scientists say hurricanes are intensifying faster with greater frequency as a result of warming ocean waters. Many Caribbean leaders have called on wealthy, heavy-polluting nations to provide reparations in the form of aid or debt relief to tropical island countries.

Melissa’s winds subsided as the storm drifted past the mountains of Jamaica, lashing highland communities vulnerable to landslides and flooding.

Local media reported at least three deaths in Jamaica during storm preparations, and a disaster coordinator suffered a stroke at the onset of the storm and was rushed to hospital. Late on Oct 28, many areas remained cut off.

In the Bahamas, next after Cuba in Melissa’s path to the north-east, the government ordered evacuations of residents in southern portions of that archipelago.

Farther to the east, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic had faced days of torrential downpours leading to at least four deaths, the authorities there said. REUTERS