Overview
- The U.S. National Hurricane Center confirmed Melissa made landfall near New Hope in southwestern Jamaica as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds around 280–295 km/h and storm surge up to 4 meters on the south coast.
- Initial regional tolls rose to at least seven deaths across the Caribbean, including three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, with authorities warning of more flash flooding and landslides.
- Jamaica reported widespread power and communications outages ahead of and during landfall, with more than 240,000 customers without electricity and significant telecom disruptions as shelters and evacuations expanded.
- Cuba declared a phase of alarm across multiple eastern provinces and evacuated hundreds of thousands as Melissa is forecast to cross eastern Cuba next, bringing dangerous surge, hurricane-force winds and heavy rain.
- Forecasters expect Melissa to move from Jamaica across eastern Cuba and then toward the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, with hazardous seas and coastal flooding risks extending across the region for days.