Name: What we know about Hurricane Melissas impact in Jamaica
Uploaded: 2025-10-29T00:16:30.542Z
Duration: 1 min 55 s
Description: In Jamaica, there are reports of severely damaged buildings and roads completely washed away after Hurricane Melissa slammed ashore as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record.

In Jamaica, there are reports of severely damaged buildings and roads completely washed away after Hurricane Melissa slammed ashore as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record.

Portmore

Hurricane Melissa has brought life-threatening conditions to Jamaica, with wind speeds reaching 185 miles per hour, making it one of the strongest storms to strike the island in the past 90 years. The hurricane caused severe damage to buildings, washed away roads, and led to widespread flooding, particularly in areas close to the storm's center.

Although Melissa has since been downgraded to a category four storm and is moving towards Cuba, Jamaica continues to experience hurricane-strength winds and intense rainfall. Aid groups are on standby to assess the damage once the storm passes, but the full extent of the destruction remains unclear as the storm moves slowly off the island.

What we know about Hurricane Melissa's impact in Jamaica

We begin tonight in Jamaica, with the life-threatening conditions caused by Hurricane Melissa. The powerful storm packed winds of 185 miles per hour. It's the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean island, and only two other storms have matched its strength during landfall in the last 90 years. There are reports of severely damaged buildings and roads completely washed away. Melissa has now been downgraded to a category four as it heads towards Cuba. Jason Allen is monitoring the storm from Portmore, Jamaica. Hurricane Melissa came on shore here in Jamaica several hours ago, and yet still, this island is feeling the wrath of this powerful storm. We're probably about 75 or 80 miles to the east of where the storm came across, and yet still, we've been experiencing these hurricane-strength winds for several hours, intense rain that continues to fall, and you can clearly see the sea behind me. This has started to lead, in this area, to some surface flooding. Some water obviously coming in from the ocean, but also coming up, we understand, from some of the structures that are in the area, and we know inland. When you get, we saw this today, you get to some of the rivers that are running and carrying that water out of the mountains that they were also starting to rise and flood, and there is extreme flooding to the west as you get closer to the center of this storm. There are aid groups who are on the ground here. They have people in place to go out and assess the damage, but they've got to wait for all of this to get through, and this storm continues to move at such a slow pace. It's going to be several hours until it gets off the island, and even then, I expect that the winds are going to be gusting, maybe not as strong as they are now, but it's going to be a while until Melissa moves out and we get a clear idea of just how much damage this historic storm has done.

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