Powerful Hurricane Melissa Leaves Destruction Across Caribbean

On October 30th, 2025, Hurricane Melissa has left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean region. According to the US National Hurricane Centre, the storm was reported to have sustained winds of 165km/h as of 9:00 GMT on Thursday.

The hurricane has caused significant disruption, particularly in the Bahamas, where authorities evacuated nearly 1,500 people from vulnerable areas in what officials described as one of the largest operations in the country's history. While the Bahamas has since lifted hurricane warnings for the central and southern islands, as well as the Turks and Caicos, the Minister of State for Disaster Risk Management, Leon Lundy, has urged residents to remain vigilant, stating that "even a weakened hurricane retains the capacity to bring serious devastation."

Across the wider Caribbean, Melissa's powerful winds have torn apart homes and buildings, uprooted trees, and left tens of thousands without power. In Cuba, residents of the country's second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba, have been working with machetes to clear streets buried in debris. President Miguel Díaz-Canel has acknowledged the "considerable damage" caused by the hurricane, though no casualty figures have been provided.

In Jamaica, the impact has been most severe in the southwestern parish of St Elizabeth, where knee-deep mud and washed-out bridges have left towns such as Black River cut off. On the road west out of the capital, Kingston, the damage has been relatively minimal, with some structures torn down and trees strewn across roads and gardens.

As the region continues to assess the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, the focus remains on recovery efforts and ensuring the safety of those affected by the storm's devastation.