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U.S.|Hurricane Melissa Has Arrived in Cuba
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/us/jamaica-melissa-destruction-cuba-hurricane.html
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Hurricane Melissa is twisting across Cuba, its eye passing over the long, thin island’s eastern shores. Cubans are huddled in the dark, many far from home. The country evacuated about 750,000 people, who are now searching for safety as winds whip and land slides in the fierce rain. Cuba’s president said it would be a “very difficult night.”
As dawn arrives in the Caribbean, the damage will become clearer. Yesterday, the storm’s center sliced through Jamaica, where boats washed ashore, roofs blew away and trees splintered under 185 m.p.h. winds. Officials reported catastrophic damage. Most people there are cut off from the internet and major airports are closed.
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Melissa lost some of its strength as it crossed Jamaica, and it is now propelled by 115 m.p.h. winds. While hurricanes often pick up speed and strength over water, they can slow when they meet the resistance of land, trees and towns. The storm is crossing “rugged terrain” in Cuba, officials said, and it is expected to continue to slow as it moves north. Melissa’s rain is also reaching Haiti, parts of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos.
What happened?
Melissa is one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record — stronger than Katrina, which pummeled New Orleans in 2005 — and the most powerful ever to hit Jamaica. On the map of the storm, its angry red center seemed to consume the entire outline of the island.
The full scale of the damage is difficult to know. The storm knocked power and cut communications for much of Jamaica, making it hard for officials to assess the extent of the destruction. It also complicated our reporting. Yesterday, during The Times’s daily news meeting, our top editor asked for an update on the storm. An international editor replied that our reporter on the ground had lost signal. “We’re hoping to hear from him soon,” she added.
