Hurricane Melissa leaves trail of destruction
Digest more
People across the northern Caribbean were digging out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa on Thursday as deaths from the catastrophic storm climbed. Stunned residents wandered about, some staring at their roofless homes and waterlogged belongings strewn around them.
Historic, life-threatening flash flooding and landslides are expected in portions of Jamaica, southern Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the weekend, the NHC said. Peak storm surge heights could reach 9 to 13 feet above normal tide levels when the storm makes landfall, accompanied by large and powerfully destructive waves.
Hurricane Melissa barreled into Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm with some of the fastest winds and strongest intensities ever recorded. The storm blew through the Caribbean island’s southwestern coast,
Sagua de Tánamo, a town in Holguín province, awoke to flooding of the Sagua River. In Contramaestre, a town in Santiago de Cuba province, Melissa’s strong winds uprooted trees and tore off sections of sidewalk.