Name: Cleanup efforts underway after Melissa
Uploaded: 2025-10-31T14:38:10.231Z
Duration: 2 min 2 s
Description: Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful ever recorded, tore through the Caribbean, with scientists pointing to climate change as a key factor behind the storm’s intensity.

Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful ever recorded, tore through the Caribbean, with scientists pointing to climate change as a key factor behind the storm’s intensity.

Cleanup operations are ongoing in the northern Caribbean after Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful storms on record, caused significant destruction. The hurricane resulted in at least 49 deaths, with the highest toll reported in Haiti due to catastrophic flooding.

Jamaica, where Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 storm, is receiving emergency relief flights and aid, while efforts continue to clear roads and reach isolated communities. In Cuba, residents are returning home after mass evacuations, and the hurricane has since weakened to a Category 2 storm as it passed west of Bermuda.

Cleanup efforts underway after Melissa

Cleanup efforts are underway as Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, left a trail of destruction across much of the northern Caribbean. The death toll further rose to 49 on Thursday, with deaths recorded in Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. In Jamaica, where Melissa made landfall on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane, emergency relief flights entered the country carrying water, medicine and other essentials. Government workers and residents are working to clear roads and reach isolated communities, and search efforts are underway to find victims under the rubble. Aerial images of Black River reveal the damage the hurricane caused. Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness said up to 90% of roofs in the coastal community were destroyed. Meanwhile in Cuba, residents slowly started returning back home after the civil defence evacuated hundreds of thousands of people across eastern Cuba ahead of the storm. When Haiti reported the highest number of deaths, at least 30 people were killed after the country was hit by catastrophic flooding unleashed by the hurricane. Melissa brushed past the southeast Bahamas on Wednesday, and on Thursday night, the hurricane weakened to a Category 2 storm as it passed by the west of Bermuda.

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