The confirmed death toll from Hurricane Melissa rose to 49 on Thursday, official reports said, after the storm caused widespread devastation in the northern Caribbean and gathered strength as it moved around Bermuda in the North Atlantic.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said flooding in the Bahamas was likely to ease, although high water levels could continue in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the nearby Dominican Republic. A study by Imperial College London found that the storm, one of the strongest ever recorded, was four times more likely due to human-made climate change, according to an AFP report.
Hurricane Melissa Update: Top 10 Points
- Haitian authorities said at least 30 were dead and 20 people were missing after days of heavy rains from the slow-moving storm, although the country was not directly hit.
2. While Jamaica’s information minister confirmed at least 19 dead, he said search and rescue operations were continuing. The storm also left hundreds of thousands of people without power, ripped roofs off buildings and scattered debris across fields, according to Reuters.
3. The Jamaican Army has called in reserve personnel to assist with relief and rescue efforts.
4. Winds were well above the threshold for the strongest hurricane category, and AccuWeather forecasters said it was tied for the second strongest Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of wind speed at landfall. AccuWeather estimates the storm caused between $48 billion and $52 billion in damage and economic losses in the Western Caribbean.
5. The hurricane also hit eastern Cuba, prompting the evacuation of some 735,000 people, although no deaths were reported Thursday despite extensive damage to homes and crops.
6. Bermuda residents remained calm as the storm was forecast to pass the island at a relatively safe distance. Authorities said they would close the dam Thursday night and suspend schools and ferries Friday “out of an abundance of caution.”
7. In the Bahamas, where Melissa was passing through Wednesday night, officials lifted storm warnings but did not declare the “all clear.” The official said authorities expected to decide by Saturday whether it was safe for hundreds of evacuees from the affected islands to return home.
8. Felicia Correa, who lives in the community of La Trampa near El Cobre, told AFP: “Melissa “killed us because it destroyed us. We have already been through tremendous suffering. Now, of course, we are much worse off.’
9. Meanwhile, Cuban officials said that approximately 735,000 people had been evacuated, mainly from the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Guantánamo.
10. Melissa hit southwestern Jamaica on Tuesday as a powerful Category 5 hurricane, the Caribbean country’s strongest storm to make direct landfall and the first major hurricane since 1988.
(With input from agencies)
