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Hurricane Melissa leaves a trail of devastation after tearing through the Caribbean

By CNN

Published October 29, 2025 9:05 pm

CNN, JAMAICAN POLICE, TVJ, JAMAICA INFORMATION SERVICE, ROLANDO RAMIS, X, @WITHAC86, Jamaican Police/TVJ, x/@WithAC86

By Mitchell McCluskey and CNN Meteorologist Briana Waxman

(CNN) — Hurricane Melissa brought devastation and death to the Caribbean as it tore through the region as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in more than 150 years.

The storm’s forceful winds unleashed widespread destruction, killing at least 30 people – though its true toll is yet to become clear, with authorities still assessing the number of casualties.

The storm was the strongest hurricane on record to hit Jamaica, where it knocked power out for most of the country.

Path of destruction

In the Caribbean, hotter-than-average waters paired with minimally disruptive winds higher in the atmosphere to create the perfect fuel and prime conditions for Melissa to strengthen.

Melissa rapidly intensified, jumping from a 70 mph tropical storm on Saturday morning to a 140 mph Category 4 hurricane Sunday morning.

By Tuesday, Melissa had morphed into a high-end Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, tying it with with four other hurricanes as the second-strongest storm recorded in the Atlantic since records began in 1851.

As it headed toward Jamaica, where it slammed into the coast as a Category 5 storm on Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned it expected the situation to be “catastrophic.”

“For Jamaica, it will be the storm of the century for sure,” WMO tropical cyclone specialist Anne-Claire Fontan said.

Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, it crossed into eastern Cuba, still a formidable Category 3 hurricane by the time it made landfall in the province of Santiago de Cuba.

By the time it reached the Bahamas on Wednesday, Hurricane Melissa had been downgraded to a Category 1, but its broad wind field continued to drive torrential flooding rain, damaging winds and dangerous storm surge at the coast.

More than 735,000 people were evacuated in Cuba as Melissa approached, according to President Miguel Díaz-Canel, while in the Bahamas, preliminary estimates show 1,485 residents were evacuated before all flights were suspended ahead of the approaching storm.

Evacuation orders were also issued for six islands in the Bahamas.

Other countries, including the Dominican Republic and Haiti, also felt the cataclysmic impacts of Melissa.

Devastation left behind

Across the Caribbean, officials painted a consistent picture of the destruction Melissa left behind.

“The conditions here are devastating. ‘Catastrophic’ is a mild term based on what we are observing here,” Richard Solomon, the mayor of the southwest Jamaican city of Black River, where Hurricane Melissa made landfall, said in a video posted by the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

Around 140,000 people were cut off as the storm pummeled the island, the government has said.

A CNN crew observed residents and military personnel push more than a dozen ambulances past storm debris in the town of Santa Cruz as the medical convoy headed to a coastal area in western Jamaica, which was hit hard.

On Wednesday, Jamaica’s government minister said the government “is not in a position to make an official statement on deaths” that may have been caused by Hurricane Melissa.

Authorities in Jamaica have recovered four bodies in the badly hit St. Elizabeth Parish in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, a source in the government told CNN on Wednesday.

Three people also died during storm preparations, but the government has not provided a death toll since the hurricane battered the island on Tuesday.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the country a disaster area yesterday, as he sought to deter price gouging.

“We must … continue to proactively maintain stability, protect consumers, and prevent any exploitation at a time when citizens are securing food, water, and supplies,” Holness said.

Around 77% of the country was left without electricity after Melissa crossed, a spokesperson said. The country’s infrastructure has taken a battering, leaving it “severely compromised,” according to Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica’s Minister of Local Government and Community Development.

Around 25,000 tourists remained in Jamaica as the country emerged from the storm, Dana Morris Dixon, Minister of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information said in a statement.

In the already beleaguered country of Haiti, 25 people died in the south when a flooded river burst its banks, a local mayor said Wednesday.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that Hurricane Melissa had wrought “significant” damage on the island.
“It has been a highly complex night, with significant damage reported,” Díaz-Canel wrote on X. “I urge our people to remain vigilant, to uphold discipline, and to continue taking all necessary precautions.”

Recovery efforts

Several international efforts have already been launched to aid in the recovery efforts.

The United Kingdom said on Wednesday it was deploying £2.5 million ($3.3 million) in emergency humanitarian funding.

China’s ambassador to Cuba shared a video on social media showing hundreds of boxes labeled as “family kit” being transported from a warehouse.

US President Donald Trump said he is monitoring the damage inflicted by Hurricane Melissa and is prepared to aid Jamaica in its recovery.

The State Department stood up a task force on Wednesday to manage the US response to the hurricane, according to senior State Department officials who are pledging a “robust” US response to the massive storm.

The Jamaican government launched an official website for relief and recovery efforts, where users can access updates on flooding locations or blocked roads and locate shelters.

CNN’s Derek Van Dam, Devon Sayers, Mary Gilbert, Elise Hammond, Joe Sutton, Avery Schmitz, and Max Saltman contributed to this report.