Hurricane Melissa claims at least seven lives in Caribbean -VIDEO
At least seven people were killed across the northern Caribbean as Category 5 Hurricane Melissa made landfall Tuesday on the southwestern coast of Jamaica.
Deaths were reported in multiple countries, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
At 2 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), the eye of the hurricane was over western Jamaica, moving north-northeast at around 8 mph (13 km/h), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The core of Melissa is expected to cross southeastern Cuba early Wednesday and reach the southeastern or central Bahamas later in the day. The storm surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned on X that rainfall could reach 350 to 750 millimeters over parts of the island in the coming days.
Many bridges and roads have flooded, including key routes to remote areas, the National Works Agency reported. Light infrastructure damage has been documented, and the storm has caused power and communications outages, isolating some communities.
Mandatory evacuation orders are in effect across Kingston, Clarendon, St. Catherine, and St. Andrew. Approximately 1.5 million people in Jamaica are expected to be directly affected, while Cuba is evacuating over 600,000 residents.
Melissa’s slow movement raises the risk of prolonged torrential rain, increasing the potential for deadly flooding and landslides. Experts say it is one of the most powerful hurricane landfalls ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin.
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