Hurricane Melissa Leaves Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba Facing Long Recovery

Three days after Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean, Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba are counting the dead and assessing damage that officials say will take months to repair. The storm made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane with top winds of 185 mph, one of the strongest Atlantic landfalls on record, the Associated Press reported in a story carried by PBS NewsHour. By Thursday it had weakened to a Category 2 storm of about 105 mph as it headed toward Bermuda, NBC News reported.

NBC News counted at least 36 deaths across the region by Thursday, nine of them in Jamaica. The AP reported that flooding also killed people in Haiti, which did not take a direct hit. The numbers were expected to rise as rescuers reached cut-off areas.

Jamaica took the worst damage. NBC reported that more than 70 percent of the island was without power on Thursday, at least 82 roads were closed, and more than 400,000 people were directly affected. All three of Jamaica’s international airports had reopened.

In Cuba, about 735,000 people were in shelters, both outlets reported.

The United States has promised help. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that rescue and response teams were heading to the Caribbean, the AP reported. NBC reported that the State Department was sending a regional disaster assistance team and urban search-and-rescue crews, but that three U.S. officials told the network the response was slowed by the government shutdown and by the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and that the disaster team missed the chance to deploy before the storm.

Other aid is flowing. The relief group Project Dynamo is sending more than 3,000 pounds of supplies including water purification kits, and the United Nations World Food Program plans to deliver 2,000 emergency food boxes from Barbados, enough for about 6,000 people for a week, once flights resume, NBC reported. The Red Cross is running ambulances across Jamaica, which is accepting donations through an official relief fund.

The United Nations resident coordinator in Jamaica, Dennis Zulu, said recovery would take at least months, NBC reported.