3 hours ago
25 people die in southern Haiti after river flooded by Hurricane Melissa burst its banks, mayor says
The mayor of a southern Haitian coastal town told the Associated Press that 25 people died after a river burst its banks and flooded nearby homes.
Dozens of homes in Petit-Goave collapsed, and people were still trapped under rubble as of Wednesday morning, mayor Jean Bertrand Subreme said.
“I am overwhelmed by the situation,” he said as he pleaded with the government to help rescue victims.
Only one official from Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency was in the area, with residents struggling to evacuate amid heavy floodwaters unleashed by Hurricane Melissa in recent days.
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
On Wednesday evening, Melissa had top sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph) and was moving northeast at 16 mph (26 kph) according to the US Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centered about 80 miles (135 kilometers) southeast of the central Bahamas.
Authorities in the Bahamas were evacuating dozens of people from the archipelago’s southeast corner ahead of Melissa’s arrival, the Associated Press reports.
Melissa’s center is forecast to move through southeastern Bahamas later Wednesday, generating up to 7 feet (2 meters) of storm surge in the area. By late Thursday, Melissa is expected to pass just west of Bermuda.
Jamaica's airports to reopen on Thursday
Jamaica’s airports are set to reopen for emergency relief flights on Thursday, officials have said. Dary Vaz, the minister of energy, telecommunications and transport, said Normal Manley international airport in Kingston had sustained only superficial damage and that the main road to the airport was not damaged.
Ian Fleming airport in St Mary and Sangster international airport in Montego Bay would also report. Vaz said: “There are a lot of Jamaicans and other persons who want to help who we want to get in.”
Hurricane downgraded to category one en route towards The Bahamas
Hurricane Melissa has been downgraded to a category one storm, with maximum wind speeds of 90mph. It’s expected to move across the south east or central Bahamas in the next few hours and then move to the west of Bermuda late on Thursday.
US sending several dozen disaster relief workers and urban rescue teams to Caribbean
Disaster Assistance Response Team personnel from across the US are currently on their way to Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, where they will also attend to issues in neighbouring Haiti, three US state department officials have told the Associated Press. They are expected to arrive in the next 24-48 hours.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the teams are not yet on the ground, said anticipated needs include temporary housing, food and hygiene kits.
They said the US military could play a role in transporting personnel and supplies to remote areas needing help but that a decision on the scale of such involvement had not yet been made.
The BBC hears similar, also reporting that the US was sending a disaster response team to Jamaica to assess the scale of need in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.
Senior state department officials told the BBC that formal requests for help had also come from Haiti, which would be managed from the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas - which had requested air support.
The officials said a team of US experts in water sanitation, food assistance and shelter was on its way to Jamaica and would be on the ground in the next 24 hours to assess needs, with supplies then following. They added that two search and rescue teams based in California and Virginia had been “activated” for the region and they were “trying to get them in as soon as we can”.
Earlier, US secretary of state Marco Rubio had said the White House was in close contact with governments in the Caribbean. “We have rescue and response teams heading to affected areas along with critical lifesaving supplies,” he said on social media.
Residents of Montego Bay in north-west Jamaica have described the “terrifying” experience of living through Hurricane Melissa. Gabrielle, a 31-year-old resident of the Catherine Hall neighbourhood said she and her four-year-old daughter had to be rescued when flood water poured into their home.
Satellite images show Jamaica before and after the hurricane
Here are satellite images showing before and after overviews of some of the neighbourhoods and areas of Jamaica that have been devastated by Hurricane Melissa.
The year 2025 joins 2005 as the only two years on record with three or more category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, with Melissa set to go down in history as the strongest landfall on record in Jamaica and one of the most powerful hurricanes ever in the Atlantic.
“This has been a remarkably unique hurricane season with very powerful storms. Hurricane Melissa was able to maintain Category 5 strength for a staggering 34 hours before it hit Jamaica,” AccuWeather’s lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva said. “Melissa is the third storm this season to explode into a Category 5 hurricane. Exceptionally warm waters across the Atlantic basin provided ample energy for storms to rapidly intensify this year. The only year on record with more Category 5 storms was 2005, with four storms.”
The UN secretary-general’s office has expressed grave concern about the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa across the Caribbean.
The UN has offered full support to countries across the region and has allocated $4m each for Haiti and Cuba in emergency funding. Officials said they were working with authorities and humanitarian partners to, with additional staff ready to deploy at short notice.
A spokesperson for António Guterres said in a statement:
The secretary-general stands in solidarity with the governments and people affected by Hurricane Melissa. He conveys his heartfelt condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured.
Dennis Zulu, the UN’s resident coordinator based in Kingston, told reporters on Wednesday that the government was working to working to open the airport in Kingston on Thursday, which would be crucial for the flow of aid from the UN regional hubs and depots in Barbados and Panama. “There has been tremendous unprecedented devastation of infrastructure, of property, road network connectivity, energy has been lost,” said Zulu.
As my colleague Nina Lakhani just reported, Jamaican officials have reported four deaths as a result of Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall on Tuesday as the strongest hurricane on record to directly hit the island.
“I am saddened to announce that four persons - three men and one woman - have been confirmed dead by the police in St. Elizabeth. They were discovered after being washed up by the flood waters generated by the hurricane,” Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica’s minister for local government and community development, said in a press release.
Fran Lawther
During a press conference, Floyd Green – a Jamaican cabinet minister – also told reporters that more than 90% of houses, including some historic buildings, suffered structural damage.
Access to the town of Black River was difficult and there was a continued lack of connectivity and electricity outages due to downed power lines.
Floyd said: “We’ve suffered a devastating blow … The entire town has been almost completely wiped out by Hurricane Melissa.”
Four bodies recovered in Jamaica on Wednesday morning, officials confirm
Nina Lakhani
The head of the St Elizabeth parish police in Jamaica, Supt Coleridge Minto, has confirmed that four bodies were found on Wednesday morning.
Two were recovered in the Black River area, the other two in the Gallon Beach district. This brings the preliminary death toll in Jamaica to seven people and includes residents killed while preparing for the category 5 hurricane to make landfall. The south-western parish of St Elizabeth was among the worst flooded on Tuesday, and described by local officials as being “under water”.
Haiti, which is one of the most climate vulnerable and politically fragile countries in the world, has suffered the highest death toll by some margin. But reports of deaths across Melissa’s path are emerging. In neighboring Dominican Republic, a man died on Wednesday after being swept away by floodwaters while trying to clean debris from a sewer, according to Julian Alberto Garcia Roman, a local emergency official told the NYT. A nine-year-old child is also reportedly missing in the capital Santo Domingo.
King Charles III expresses sorrow over 'catastrophic damage' caused by hurricane
Fran Lawther
Britain’s King Charles III said he and his wife, Queen Camilla, were “profoundly saddened” by the “catastrophic damage” caused by Hurricane Melissa.
In a social media message, the king expressed his concern and admiration for those affected by the disaster. And he paid tribute to emergency services, frontline workers and volunteers.
The statement from King Charles said:
This most dreadful of record-breaking storms reminds us of the increasingly urgent need to restore the balance and harmony of Nature for the sake of all those whose lives and livelihoods may have been shattered by this heartbreaking disaster.
His message came after the UK government announced £2.5m ($3.3m) in emergency funding for the region, after the deadly storm battered fellow Commonwealth nation Jamaica, then Cuba and Haiti.
British prime minister Keir Starmer called the devastation caused by the storm “truly shocking”.
The funding will be used for supplies including shelter kits, water filters and blankets, as well as to help prevent injury and disease outbreaks, the government said.
Nina Lakhani
Estimates of the economic cost of category 5 Melissa on Jamaica are starting to emerge, even though the full extent of the damage from floods, storm surge, wind and landslides is not yet clear.
According to Enki Research, models are estimating direct economic impacts from damaged and destroyed buildings and infrastructure at between $6bn and $10bn dollars. Enki’s best guess is around $7.7bn, which is equivalent to 37% of Jamaica’s GDP in 2024 ($20.6bn).
Analysts at AccuWeather on the other hand reckon $22bn once the physical damage and economic losses are taken into account.
Melissa is almost certain to trigger a full payout from Jamaica’s catastrophe bond, an insurance scheme backed by 15 undisclosed investors that was arranged by the World Bank last year. Catastrophe or cat bonds are designed for only the most extreme weather events, and have to meet strict criteria before payouts are triggered. The last time a weather-related cat bond paid out in full was in connection with Hurricane Ian in 2022.
It will likely take days for a full damage assessment to be completed in Jamaica, and then years for the island’s 2.9m people to recover.
Death toll in Haiti rises to 40 - report
The Associated Press is now reporting that at least 40 people have died across Haiti, a rise from the 25 deaths reported earlier.
Steven Aristil, with Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency, told the AP that 20 of those deaths were reported in the southern coastal town of Petit-Goâve, where another 10 remain missing.
Earlier on Wednesday, the mayor of Petit-Goâve, Jean Bertrand Subrème, had told the AP that flooding from Hurricane Melissa had killed at least 25 people were killed in that community.
