SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (AP) — Hurricane Melissa was grinding across Cuba on Wednesday as a Category 2 storm after pummeling Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
At least one death was reported in Jamaica, where Melissa roared ashore on Tuesday with top sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph). A tree fell on a baby in the island nation’s west, Abka Fitz-Henley, a state minister, told Nationwide News Network, a local radio station, adding that most destruction was concentrated in the southwest and northwest.
Residents continued to evacuate from their homes in Cuba as Hurricane Melissa battered its way through the Caribbean and was expected to arrive on the island’s shores. (AP video shot by: Ariel Fernández, Matias Delacroix and Jordany Junior Verdieu)
Melissa had top sustained winds of 105 mph (165 kph) and was moving north-northeast at 14 mph (22 kph) according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centered 45 miles (70 kilometers) northwest of Guantánamo, Cuba, and 205 miles (335 kilometers) south of the central Bahamas.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Cuba’s Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguin and Las Tunas provinces as well as the southeastern and central Bahamas. Authorities said about 735,000 people remained in shelters in eastern Cuba.
AP AUDIO: Hurricane Melissa churns across Cuba as a Category 3 storm
AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on Hurricane Melissa.
“That was hell. All night long, it was terrible,” said Reinaldo Charon in Santiago de Cuba. The 52-year-old was one of the few people venturing out Wednesday, covered by a plastic sheet in the intermittent rain.
Parts of Granma province, especially the municipal capital, Jiguaní, were “under water,” said Gov. Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez. More than 15 inches (40 centimeters) of rain was reported in Jiguaní’s settlement of Charco Redondo.
The U.S. Defense Department has released footage of views inside Hurricane Melissa. The military said a U.S. Air Force Reserve crew from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the “Hurricane Hunters,” flew multiple passes through Melissa on Monday to collect critical weather data for the National Hurricane Center.
Officials reported collapsed houses, blocked mountain roads and roofs blown off. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Melissa was forecast to continue weakening as it crossed Cuba but remain strong as it moves across the southeastern or central Bahamas later Wednesday. It was expected to make its way late Thursday near or to the west of Bermuda. Haiti and the Turks and Caicos also braced for its effects.
The storm was expected to generate a surge of up to 12 feet (3.6 meters) in the region and drop up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain in parts of eastern Cuba. Intense rain could cause life-threatening flooding with numerous landslides, U.S. forecasters said.
The hurricane could worsen Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which already has led to prolonged power blackouts, as well as fuel and food shortages.
“There will be a lot of work to do. We know there will be a lot of damage,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a televised address, and urged the population not to underestimate the power of Melissa, “the strongest ever to hit national territory.”
Jamaica rushes to assess the damage
Jamaican officials reported complications in assessing the damage, while the National Hurricane Center said the local government had lifted the tropical storm warning.
“There’s a total communication blackout on that side,” Richard Thompson, acting director general of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, told the Nationwide News Network. More than half a million customers were without power late Tuesday.
Extensive damage was reported in parts of Clarendon in the south and in the southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth, which was “under water,” said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council. He said the storm damaged four hospitals and left one without power, forcing officials to evacuate 75 patients.
Santa Cruz town in St. Elizabeth parish was devastated. A landslide blocked main roads. Streets were reduced to mud pits. Residents swept water from homes as they tried to salvage belongings. Winds ripped off part of the roof at St. Elizabeth Technical High School, a designated public shelter.
“I never see anything like this before in all my years living here,” said one resident, Jennifer Small. “The entire hillside came down last night,” said another, Robert James.
The government said it hopes to reopen all of Jamaica’s airports as early as Thursday to ensure quick distribution of emergency relief supplies.
The U.S. government said it was deploying a disaster response team and search and rescue personnel to the region. And the State Department said non-emergency personnel and family members of U.S. government employees were authorized to leave Jamaica because of the storm’s impact.
Melissa already had been blamed for seven deaths in the Caribbean, including three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
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Rodríguez reported from Havana and Myers from Santa Cruz, Jamaica. Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.
