Hurricane Melissa broke records for Jamaica

Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica on October 28 as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, the strongest to ever make landfall on the island nation. The storm’s rapid intensification over unusually warm Caribbean waters highlights a trend scientists have long warned about, where climate change fuels more powerful and destructive weather events.

The devastation in Jamaica and neighboring islands is expected to renew calls from developing nations for financial aid from wealthier countries to cope with the escalating impacts of a warming planet.

Wind speeds 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 wind speed when it struck land.

Melissa’s wind speeds are one of the highest in the Caribbean basin

Melissa is the most powerful hurricane to make landfall on Jamaica since Gilbert in 1988.

No stranger to hurricanes, Jamaica had never before been known to take a direct hit from a Category 4 or 5 storm (Gilbert made landfall as a Category 3), and the government called for foreign aid even as it prepared for Melissa’s arrival.

“It’s a catastrophic situation,” the World Meteorological Organization’s tropical cyclone specialist Anne-Claire Fontan told a press briefing ahead of the storm making landfall. “For Jamaica, it will be the storm of the century for sure.”

Melissa’s size and strength ballooned as it churned over unusually warm Caribbean waters, and forecasters warned that its slow movement could prove particularly destructive.

Jamaica and Haiti experienced heavy torrential rain

The storm’s trajectory across multiple islands and slow movement meant that rain lingered over regions for extended periods.

Authorities in Haiti, which was not directly hit but nevertheless suffered days of torrential rains from the slow-moving storm, reported at least 25 deaths, mostly in the southern town of Petit-Goave when a river burst its banks.

The banks of a river also caved in and carried off part of a national highway, local newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported. The road, which had been weakened by last year’s Hurricane Beryl, connected to the nearby city of Jacmel.

Melissa also hit eastern Cuba, where some 735,000 evacuated, but as of Thursday, no deaths were reported there, despite extensive damage to homes and crops.

Meteorologists at AccuWeather said Melissa ranked as the third most intense hurricane observed in the Caribbean after Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988 – the last major storm to make landfall in Jamaica.

Hurricanes are getting stronger, faster.

Scientists warn that storms are intensifying faster with greater frequency as a result of warming ocean waters. Rapid intensification is when hurricanes grow their wind speed over 35 mph in less than 24 hours, making it hard to predict the danger they may present.

Melissa rapidly intensified in less than 24 hours

This storm is now the fourth of this year’s five Atlantic hurricanes to undergo rapid intensification.

Many Caribbean leaders have called on wealthy, heavy-polluting nations to provide reparations in the form of aid or debt relief to tropical island countries.

Damage in Jamaica

Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica, near the parish border between Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth, one of the areas hardest-hit by Beryl.

St. Elizabeth was submerged by flooding, local government minister Desmond McKenzie told a press briefing. Its only public hospital lost power and reported severe damage to one of its buildings.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness visited the hospital, where aerial footage showed the wrecks of buildings, roofs blown off, power cables knocked down and fields strewn with rubble.