Hurricane Melissa has “severely compromised” infrastructure and impacted entire country, minister says
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By CNN Meteorologists Taylor Ward, Briana Waxman, Mary Gilbert, Elise Hammond, Billy Stockwell and Eric Zerkel
(CNN) – Hurricane Melissa is now a Category 3 storm with 125 mph sustained winds, according to the National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory.
It is starting to slowly pull away from Jamaica and is heading toward eastern Cuba where conditions are expected “to deteriorate rapidly over the next several hours,” the advisory said.
Melissa is expected to remain a major hurricane (Category 3 or greater) when it moves across Cuba and the Bahamas.
Extensive damage is being reported across southwestern Jamaica, including in the parish of St. Elizabeth, an official from the country’s disaster management body told CNN, with schools, homes, and hospitals affected by Hurricane Melissa.
Hundreds of thousands of people on the island are without power, officials said, and “close to 15,000 Jamaicans” are in emergency shelters.
A police station in Jamaica’s southwestern city of Black River has been turned into a temporary shelter amid reports of extensive damage in the parish of St. Elizabeth.
Jamaica’s infrastructure has been “severely compromised” by Hurricane Melissa, said Desmond McKenzie, Minister of Local Government and Community Development.
Hitting as a Category 5 hurricane this afternoon, Melissa was the strongest storm on record to smash into the island nation.
“Jamaica’s gone through what I can call one of its worst period. Our infrastructure has been severely compromised,” McKenzie said Tuesday, giving an update as the storm’s eye has now tracked off land.
While Jamaica’s infrastructure in urban areas like Kingston has improved over the years, rural and informal settlements remain vulnerable. The country’s electric grid was already strained ahead of landfall, and now hundreds of thousands of people are without power, McKenzie said.
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