Hurricane Melissa’s death toll climbs to 44, storm churns north

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By Dave Sherwood

PORT-AU-PRINCE/KINGSTON/HAVANA (Reuters) -Hurricane Melissa’s confirmed death toll climbed to 44 on Thursday, according to official reports, after wreaking destruction across much of the northern Caribbean and picking up speed as it headed toward Bermuda.

Jamaica’s information minister told Reuters at least 19 deaths had been confirmed, but authorities were continuing search and rescue efforts. The storm left hundreds of thousands without power, ripped roofs of buildings and scattered fields with rubble.

Jamaica’s military has called on reserve personnel to report for duty to help with relief and rescue operations.

Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica on Tuesday as a powerful Category 5 hurricane, the Caribbean nation’s strongest-ever storm to directly hit its shores, and the first major hurricane to do so since 1988.

Windspeeds were well above the minimum level for the strongest hurricane classification. Forecasters at AccuWeather said it tied in second place for strongest-ever Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of windspeed when in struck land.

The forecaster estimated $48 billion to $52 billion in damage and economic loss across the western Caribbean.

Authorities in Haiti, which was not directly hit but nevertheless suffered days of torrential rains from the slow-moving storm, reported at least 25 deaths, mostly in the southern town of Petit-Goave when a river burst its banks.

A river also caved in and carried off part of a national highway, local newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported. The road, which had been weakened by last year’s Hurricane Beryl, connected to the nearby city of Jacmel.

Melissa also hit eastern Cuba, where some 735,000 evacuated, but as of Thursday, no deaths were reported there, despite extensive damage to homes and crops.

At 8 p.m. (0000 GMT), Melissa was a Category 1 storm 409 km (254 miles) south-west of the North Atlantic British island territory, where hurricane conditions were expected by nightfall even as Melissa’s eye skirts north-west.

Melissa was packing maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (169 kph).

Residents in Bermuda however remained calm as the storm was expected to give the island a relatively wide berth. Authorities said they would close its causeway Thursday night and shut schools and ferries on Friday “out of an abundance of caution.”

In the Bahamas, which Melissa cut through Wednesday night, authorities lifted storm warnings but did not give the “all clear”. An official said authorities expected to decide by Saturday whether it was safe for the hundreds of people who evacuated off affected islands to return to their homes.

WADING BAREFOOT THROUGH MUD

The front page of Thursday’s Jamaica Observer newspaper read: “DEVASTATION.”

Densely populated Kingston was spared the worst damage. Its main airport was set to reopen on Thursday, as was the capital’s port. Relief flights and aid had begun to flow into Jamaica’s airports, authorities said.

But across the country, more than 130 roads remained blocked by trees, debris and electric lines, authorities said, forcing the military to clear roadways on foot into isolated areas, with ambulances following close behind.

Satellite imagery showed swaths of trees and homes devastated in the hardest-hit areas of Jamaica, sparse remaining greenery defoliated and most structures destroyed.

In a neighbourhood of the island’s Montego Bay, 77-year-old Alfred Hines waded barefoot through thick mud and debris as he described his narrow escape from the rising floodwaters.

“At one stage, I see the water at my waist and (after) about 10 minutes time, I see it around my neck here and I make my escape,” he told Reuters on Wednesday. 

“I just want to forget it and things come back to normal.”

In western parts of the island, people crowded by supermarkets and gas stations to fill up on supplies.

“Montego Bay hasn’t got any petrol. Most of the petrol stations are down,” British tourist Chevelle Fitzgerald told Reuters, adding it took her at least six hours to cross the 174 km (108 miles) to Jamaica’s capital.

“The highway was closed. You had some blockage on the road and trees falling down,” she said.

Over 70% of electrical customers in Jamaica remained without power as of Thursday morning, said Energy Minister Daryl Vaz, with power lines felled across the island’s roadways.

Many schools remained without power or water, officials in the capital Kingston said.

IMMEDIATE HUMANITARIAN AID

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

Despite the U.N. setting up a fund for developing nations to quickly access reliable financing for more extreme weather events in 2023, donations have not met targets.

U.S. forecaster AccuWeather said Melissa was the third most-intense hurricane observed in the Caribbean, as well as its slowest-moving, compounding damages for affected areas.

U.S. search and rescue teams were headed for Jamaica on Thursday to assist in recovery efforts, Jamaican authorities said. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was prepared to offer “immediate humanitarian aid” to the people of Cuba, a long-time U.S. foe.

Authorities in Cuba – which Melissa struck in the night as a Category 3 storm – said they were “awaiting clarification on how and in what way they are willing to assist.”

At least 241 Cuban communities remained isolated and without communications on Wednesday following the storm’s passage across Santiago province, according to preliminary media reports, affecting as many as 140,000 residents.

Residents of Santiago, Cuba’s second-largest city, began returning to repair their homes. Authorities had evacuated 735,000 people to shelters outside the hurricane’s cone and relocated tourists in northern cays to inland hotels.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland and Brendan O’Boyle in Mexico City, Zahra Burton in Kingston, Steven Aristil in Port-au-Prince, Herbert Villarraga in Les Cayes, Maria Alejandra Cardona in St. Elizabeth’s Parish, Don Burgess in Hamilton and Dave Sherwood in Havana; Writing by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Deepa Babington and David Gregorio)