Hurricane Melissa’s confirmed death toll climbed to 49 on Thursday, according to official reports, after wreaking destruction across much of the northern Caribbean and picking up speed as it headed past Bermuda in the North Atlantic.
Authorities in Haiti, which was not directly hit but nevertheless suffered days of torrential rains from the slow-moving storm, reported at least 30 deaths and 20 more missing.
At least 23 people, including 10 children, died in Haiti’s southern town of Petit-Goave when a river burst its banks. Roads, houses and farmlands were also damaged by the rains.
Jamaica’s information minister confirmed at least 19 deaths, but said authorities were continuing search and rescue efforts. The storm left hundreds of thousands without power, ripped roofs of buildings and scattered fields with rubble.
Jamaica’s military has called on reserve personnel to report for duty to help with relief and rescue operations.
WATCH | Hurricane Melissa causes widespread damage in Jamaica:
Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica as the strongest recorded storm to make landfall in country’s history, leaving behind widespread damage.
Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica on Tuesday as a powerful Category 5 hurricane, the Caribbean nation’s strongest-ever storm to directly hit its shores, and the first major hurricane to do so since 1988.
Windspeeds were well above the minimum level for the strongest hurricane classification. Forecasters at AccuWeather said it tied in second place for strongest-ever Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of windspeed when in struck land.
The forecaster estimated damage and economic loss across the western Caribbean at between $67 and $72 billion.
Melissa also hit eastern Cuba, where some 735,000 evacuated. As of Thursday, no deaths were reported there despite extensive damage to homes and crops.
At 11 p.m local time, Melissa was a Category 2 storm 264 kilometres west of the North Atlantic British island territory of Bermuda, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, packing maximum sustained winds of 161 km/h.
Residents in Bermuda had remained calm as the storm was expected to give the island a relatively wide berth. Authorities said they would close its causeway Thursday night and shut schools and ferries on Friday “out of an abundance of caution.”
In the Bahamas, which Melissa cut through Wednesday night, authorities lifted storm warnings but did not give the “all clear.” An official said authorities expected to decide by Saturday whether it was safe for the hundreds of people who evacuated off affected islands to return to their homes.
