Hours after Hurricane Melissa made landfall on Jamaica’s southern coast as one of the strongest storms on record, it slammed into eastern Cuba as a Category 3 early Wednesday.
The storm has left devastated communities behind in Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti, where it destroyed homes, downed power lines and swamped roads. In Jamaica, buildings were flooded or lost roofs to the wind, and landslides blocked roads.
Roughly 77% of the island had lost power, Jamaica's education minister said.
The true extent of the damage was not yet known, due to power outages, communications blockages and continued dangerous conditions.
Infrastructure that would be used to conduct first response and rescue operations has itself been destroyed, local officials said.
“Catastrophic is a mild term based on what we are observing,” said Richard Solomon, Mayor of Black River, Jamaica.
Officials in Haiti said that 25 people died as a result of the storm and another 18 are missing, the Associated Press reported. Officials have reported eight deaths in Jamaica and one in the Dominican Republic.
As Hurricane Melissa moves northeast through the Atlantic, the Jamaican government has issued an "all clear," calling on utility providers and critical service companies to begin restoring services like electricity, water and communications networks. Officials also called on supermarkets to reopen.
"We are now in day one of the recovery," Jamaica's Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications, said Daryl Vaz. "Number one priority for today is obviously to do the assessment while doing search and rescue for those that may require that, and the government is ready and waiting and we are at work already."
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New York residents and Jamaican farmers Erica Robinson and Seymour Wilson told Scripps News that they've heard from some loved ones that "roofs are blown off."
"We have a business in Jamaica and the entire roof is gone," Robinson said. "I have not heard from my brother or my aunt, and I'm very anxious about that."
Both Robinson and Wilson are also farmers in Jamaica. They don't know how their agricultural products or cattle fared through the storm.
"They are located in the primary area that was hit, so we are anxious about that also," they said.
The two Jamaican natives are hoping to return to the island soon but in the meantime are planning a fundraiser to send aid to communities in need.
"We are very resilient people," Robinson said. "We'll pull our bootstraps up and we'll move forward. But whatever support that you can provide, please make sure it goes in the hands of people who are actually making a difference."
In Cuba, roads were blocked and buildings had lost roofs or collapsed entirely. More than 700,000 people were still in shelters where they waited out the storm.
Melissa is expected to continue toward the Bahamas, where forecasters say it will bring Category 1 hurricane conditions, including storm surge and dangerous winds and flooding.
The storm first made landfall near New Hope, Jamaica, around noon local time as a Category 5 hurricane with top winds of 185 mph. By the time it reached Cuba, the top winds were down to 120 mph.
At landfall in Jamaica, Melissa’s central pressure dropped to 892 millibars, making it the most intense hurricane to strike land in the Atlantic since 1935 and tying it for the third-most intense storm ever recorded in the basin.
The United States is prepared to provide aid to Jamaica despite the Trump administration's cuts to assistance programs.
“On a humanitarian basis we have to, so we’re watching it closely and we’re prepared to move,” President Trump said early Wednesday. “It’s doing tremendous damage. As we speak, it’s right there right now.”
