Hurricane Melissa leaves trail of destruction
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Hurricane Melissa is slamming eastern Cuba on Wednesday morning, Oct. 29, after hammering Jamaica on Tuesday and causing widespread damage.
Melissa is now a Category 3 hurricane as it hits eastern Cuba, after bringing catastrophic winds, rain and storm surge to Jamaica. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration was "prepared to move" on sending humanitarian aid to Jamaica, amid the devastation wrought there by Hurricane Melissa.
The storm will hit Bermuda on Thursday afternoon or evening, after Jamaica faced the devastation from one of the most powerful storms ever recorded.
Rescue operations and urgent evacuations continued in Cuba on Friday, as people remained trapped by severe flooding left by the torrential rains from Hurricane Melissa on rural areas and towns across the affected provinces on the eastern end of the island.
Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba this week as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record. A new analysis finds that warming made the cyclone four times as likely to hit today as in preindustrial times.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in southwest Jamaica this week near the coastal town of Black River, which the government has described as “ground zero.”
Rescue efforts are underway across the Caribbean after Hurricane Melissa tore through the region as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in more than 150 years.
The record-breaking Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, with sustained winds of 185 mph and gusts of over 200 mph, made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28 with 130 mph winds. This marks Melissa the strongest hurricane that has made landfall on the island to date.