Hurricane Melissa hit eastern Cuba early Wednesday near the city of Chivirico as a powerful Category 3 storm, after battering Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Cuban officials said hundreds of thousands of residents were moved to shelters ahead of the storm. Hurricane warnings were in effect for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguín, and Las Tunas.
By early Wednesday, Melissa had top winds of about 193 kilometres per hour and was moving northeast at 16 kilometres per hour, the NHC reported. The storm’s center was about 32 kilometres east of Chivirico and roughly 97 kilometres west-southwest of Guantánamo.
Forecasters said Melissa would move across eastern Cuba through the morning before heading toward the Bahamas later in the day. Heavy rainfall could trigger life-threatening floods and landslides. A hurricane watch was also issued for Bermuda.
Melissa hit Jamaica on Tuesday with sustained winds of 295 kilometres per hour, leaving widespread destruction. The storm could also bring storm surges up to 3.6 metres high and drop as much as 51 centimetres of rain in parts of Cuba.
“Numerous landslides are likely in those areas,” said Michael Brennan, director of the NHC.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned that Melissa could worsen the country’s ongoing economic troubles, including power outages, fuel shortages, and food scarcity.
“There will be a lot of work to do. We know there will be a lot of damage,” he said in a televised address, adding that no one would be left behind and that all efforts would be made to protect lives.
Classes were suspended in several provinces from Guantánamo to Camagüey as the storm approached.
In Jamaica, officials began assessing the damage Wednesday. Severe flooding and destruction were reported in the southern parishes of Clarendon and St. Elizabeth, where entire areas were underwater.
Deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council, Desmond McKenzie, said four hospitals were damaged, one of which lost power and had to evacuate 75 patients. More than half a million customers were without electricity as downed trees and power lines blocked roads across the island.
The Jamaican government said it hopes to reopen airports by Thursday to deliver emergency supplies.
So far, Hurricane Melissa has been blamed for at least seven deaths across the Caribbean — three in Jamaica, three in Haiti, and one in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
