Camille Naredo

A woman walks in a street before Hurricane Melissa hits the city of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba on October 28, 2025. Yamil Lage, AFP

A woman walks in a street before Hurricane Melissa hits the city of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba on October 28, 2025. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE / AFP)

Article (news)

CUBA

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1761739533522AFP__20251028__82BP3RE__v2__MidRes__TopshotCubaWeatherHurricaneMelissa.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="A woman walks in a street before Hurricane Melissa hits the city of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba on October 28, 2025. Yamil Lage, AFP"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">A woman walks in a street before Hurricane Melissa hits the city of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba on October 28, 2025. <em>Yamil Lage, AFP</em></span></span></span></div><p>CUBA -- A downgraded Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early on Wednesday after ripping a path of destruction across Jamaica, which authorities have designated a &quot;disaster area.&quot;</p><p>The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Melissa, which it described as an &quot;extremely dangerous hurricane&quot;, had weakened to a Category 3 storm before it made landfall in Santiago de Cuba province on the island&#x27;s southern coast.</p><p>It hit with maximum sustained winds of approximately 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said, after fluctuating between Category 3 and Category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale.</p><p>Cuban residents fled the coast as it approached, with local authorities declaring a &quot;state of alert&quot; in six eastern provinces.</p><p>Residents told AFP they had been stockpiling food, candles, and batteries since Monday.</p><p>&quot;We bought bread, spaghetti, and ground beef. This cyclone is serious, but we&#x27;ll get through it,&quot; Graciela Lamaison told AFP in Santiago de Cuba.</p><p>Authorities in Haiti, east of Cuba, ordered the closure of schools, businesses and government offices on Wednesday.</p><p>Cuban authorities reported that some 735,000 people have been evacuated so far.</p><p>&quot;It will be a very difficult night for all of Cuba, but we will recover,&quot; Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on social media platform X.</p><p>Floraina Duany, 80, prayed on Tuesday to Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, patron saint of Cuba, asking that Melissa not cause damage.</p><p>&quot;If you are the mistress of the waters, break up (Hurricane Melissa) so it doesn&#x27;t do us so much harm,&quot; she told AFP near her home in Playa Siboney, a town 25 miles (15 kilometers) from Santiago de Cuba.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/10/27/powerful-hurricane-melissa-strengthens-as-it-heads-for-jamaica-1750">WATCH: Powerful Hurricane Melissa strengthens as it heads for Jamaica</a></div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/weather-traffic/2025/10/28/hurricane-melissa-tracked-by-storm-hunters-flying-into-its-eye-0959">WATCH: Hurricane Melissa tracked by storm hunters flying into its eye</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Disaster area&#x27; -</strong></div><p>Melissa hit Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane around midday Tuesday with sustained winds of up to 185 mph (295 km/h), the worst hurricane to hit the island since meteorological records began.</p><p>It took hours to cross Jamaica before first weakening and then intensifying again.</p><p>Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the island a &quot;disaster area&quot; and authorities warned residents to remain sheltered because of continued flooding and the risk of landslides.</p><p>Lisa Sangster, a 30-year-old communications specialist in Kingston, said her home was devastated by the storm.</p><p>&quot;My sister... explained that parts of our roof was blown off and other parts caved in and the entire house was flooded,&quot; she told AFP.</p><p>The scale of Melissa&#x27;s damage in Jamaica was not yet clear. A comprehensive assessment could take days because much of the island was still without power, with communications networks badly disrupted.</p><p>Government minister Desmond McKenzie said several hospitals had been damaged, including in Saint Elizabeth, a coastal district he said was &quot;underwater.&quot;</p><p>&quot;The damage to Saint Elizabeth is extensive, based on what we have seen,&quot; he said in a briefing.</p><p>&quot;Saint Elizabeth is the breadbasket of the country, and that has taken a beating. The entire Jamaica has felt the brunt of Melissa.&quot;</p><p>The hurricane was the worst to strike Jamaica, hitting land with maximum wind speeds more powerful than many of recent history&#x27;s strongest storms, including 2005&#x27;s Katrina that ravaged the US city of New Orleans.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/weather-traffic/2025/10/29/strong-winds-and-rain-as-category-5-hurricane-melissa-makes-landfall-in-jamaica-0722">WATCH: Strong winds and rain as Category 5 hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Severely damaged&#x27; -</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5CcoKxguW0M?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span>Jamaica&#x27;s climate change minister told CNN that Melissa&#x27;s effect was &quot;catastrophic,&quot; citing flooded homes and &quot;severely damaged public infrastructure&quot; and hospitals.</div><p>Mathue Tapper, 31, told AFP from Kingston that those in the capital were &quot;lucky&quot; but feared for fellow Jamaicans in the island&#x27;s more rural western areas.</p><p>Broad scientific consensus says human-driven climate change is responsible for intensified storms such as Melissa, which are increasingly frequent in the region and bring higher potential for destruction and deadly flooding.</p><p>&quot;Human-caused climate change is making all of the worst aspects of Hurricane Melissa even worse,&quot; said climate scientist Daniel Gilford.</p><p>The Jamaican Red Cross, which was distributing drinking water and hygiene kits ahead of infrastructure disruptions, said Melissa&#x27;s &quot;slow nature&quot; exacerbated the anxiety.</p><p>The United Nations is planning an airlift of some 2,000 relief kits to Jamaica from a supply station in Barbados once air travel is possible.</p><p>Assistance is also planned for other affected countries, including Cuba and Haiti, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told journalists.</p><p>Jamaican officials said around 25,000 tourists were in the country, famed for its normally crystalline waters.</p>

<p>A downgraded Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early on Wednesday after ripping a path of destruction across Jamaica, which authorities have designated a "disaster area."</p>

A downgraded Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early on Wednesday after ripping a path of destruction across Jamaica, which authorities have designated a "disaster area."

Downgraded Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Cuba, NHC says

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Downgraded Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Cuba, NHC says

Rigoberto Diaz,

Agence France-Presse

Published Oct 29, 2025 08:41 PM PHT

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