Caribbean reels from ‘unprecedented’ hurricane destruction

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (AFP) — “Hurricane Melissa” bore down on the Bahamas Wednesday after cutting a path of destruction through the Caribbean, leaving 30 people dead or missing in Haiti and parts of Jamaica and Cuba in ruins.

Somewhat weakened but still threatening, “Melissa” will bring damaging winds and flooding rains to the Bahamas Wednesday before moving on to Bermuda late Thursday, according to the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC).

“In the Bahamas, residents should remain sheltered,” it said, while in Bermuda, “preparations should be underway and be completed before anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds.”

As “Melissa” left Cuban shores, residents started assessing their losses, with President Miguel Diaz-Canel quantifying the damage as “extensive.”

In the east of the communist island battling its worst economic crisis in decades, people struggled through flooded and collapsed homes and inundated streets.

The storm smashed windows, downed power cables and mobile communications, and ripped off roofs and tree branches.

Cuban authorities said some 735,000 people had been evacuated — mainly in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Holguin and Guantanamo.

In Santiago de Cuba, homemaker Mariela Reyes, 55, recounted how violent winds lifted the roof off her humble dwelling and dumped it a block away.

She managed to save her TV set and a few small appliances from her flooded home.

“It’s not easy to lose... the little you have,” Reyes told Agence France-Presse.

‘Disaster area’

Pope Leo offered prayers from the Vatican, while the US said it was in contact with the governments of Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.

“We have rescue and response teams heading to affected areas along with critical lifesaving supplies,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X, without mentioning ideological foe Cuba.

The United Kingdom government announced £2.5 million (about $3.3 million) in emergency funding for the region.

In Jamaica, where some parts are still recovering from “Hurricane Beryl” last year, United Nations resident coordinator Dennis Zulu told reporters “Melissa” had brought “tremendous, unprecedented devastation of infrastructure, of property, roads, network connectivity.”

Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the tropical island famed for tourism a “disaster area.”