The Latest: Hurricane Melissa impacting southeastern Bahamas after dozens killed across Caribbean

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba — Melissa began affecting the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Authorities in the Bahamas were evacuating dozens of people from the archipelago’s southeast corner ahead of Melissa’s arrival as a Category 1 storm.

Melissa’s center is forecast to move through the southeastern Bahamas later Wednesday, generating up to 7 feet (2 meters) of storm surge in the area. By late Thursday, the storm is expected to pass just west of Bermuda.

The extent of the damage from Melissa was unclear Wednesday as widespread power outages and dangerous conditions persisted in affected areas.

The hurricane initially made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record. The storm came ashore again in Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane.

Hurricane Melissa has left at least 34 dead in the Caribbean: eight in Jamaica, one in the Dominican Republican and 25 in Haiti, a lower total from an earlier count of 40. The number of reported deaths in Haiti often fluctuates early on following major natural disasters.

Here’s the latest:

Melissa is disastrous for Jamaica’s farmers, agricultural advocates say

The impact on Jamaica’s farmers is “catastrophic,” said Denver Thorpe, regional manager for the Jamaica Agricultural Society, a 130-year-old farmer advocacy organization.

The country’s farmers were already recovering from Hurricane Beryl in 2024, which impacted about 50,000 farmers and 11,000 fishers, according to Jamaica’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining.

“We were just about turning the corner,” said Thorpe, who lost two greenhouses and 15 acres of mangos Tuesday in Westmoreland Parish.

“There’s absolutely nothing,” he said, adding that it will be another long road for the agricultural sector to rebuild.

“I’m just looking at the work right now,” he said. “It’s never going to finish.”

‘Just living by the day’

Fallen power lines and light poles are blocking road access in and out of Jason Barnett’s neighborhood in the Amity district of Westmoreland Parish in Jamaica. He borrowed a neighbor’s bike to check on his 2-year-old daughter who lives about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) away, crossing three rivers to reach her.

“She was okay, their roof was intact, so I was really happy about that,” he said.

Back on Barnett’s street, nearly every home lost its roof in Melissa’s catastrophic winds. Barnett, 34, installed some screws in his roof just before the storm arrived, buying enough time to move his appliances and valuables somewhere safe before the wind ripped off the zinc roof.

Barnett has been sharing Wi-Fi from his Starlink device with his neighbors, but the power is still out and people are getting by with limited food and water.

“We’re just living by the day now,” he said. “Everyone is trying to help everyone.”

Death toll in Haiti rises to 25

The number of people killed across the country rose to 25, with 18 others missing, Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency says.

The vast majority of those killed or missing were reported in the southern coastal town of Petit-Goâve, where Hurricane Melissa destroyed 80 homes and damaged more than 160 others, officials say.

Ten of the 20 people killed in Petit-Goâve were children, the agency said.

Officials warned that 152 disabled people in Haiti’s southern region require emergency food assistance. More than 11,600 people remained sheltered in Haiti because of Hurricane Melissa.

Airports in Jamaica to begin reopening

Jamaican Transportation Minister Daryl Vaz said the island’s main international airport in Kingston and a smaller international airport in St. Mary will reopen late Wednesday afternoon.

He noted that the airports will open only to relief flights on Wednesday, with U.N. agencies and dozens of nonprofits on standby to distribute basic goods. Both airports will reopen to commercial operations early Thursday morning, but commercial flights might not start until Friday, Vaz said.

He said that the international airport in Montego Bay will reopen late Thursday morning.

“The devastation is enormous,” he said. “We need all hands on deck to recover stronger and to help those in need at this time.”

Where Hurricane Melissa is now

The storm was located 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of the central Bahamas and was moving northeast at 16 mph (150 kph), according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Melissa’s maximum sustained winds were 90 mph (150 kph), making it a Category 1 storm.

The NHC discontinued tropical storm warnings for Haiti and said Cuba’s government dropped all hurricane and tropical storm warnings for the country.

‘People have lost everything’

As Charly Saint-Vil, 30, walked the streets of Petit-Goâve, Haiti, the small coastal town where he grew up, he saw bodies lying among the debris on the street. People were screaming as they searched for their missing children, he said.

Officials say Hurricane Melissa killed at least 20 people in the town of approximately 12,000 people, the bulk of the 23 people who have died across the country.

“People have lost everything,” said Saint-Vil.

Although the immediate threat of the storm has passed, Saint-Vil said residents are still worrying about access to medicine, water and food in the coming days given the political instability in Haiti before the hurricane.

For now, neighbors are helping each other source necessities and find places to sleep. Saint-Vil is hosting a number of friends who lost their homes in his small apartment.

“What I can do, I will do it, but it’s not easy because the situation is really complicated for everyone,” he said.

US sending several dozen disaster relief workers and urban rescue teams to Caribbean

Disaster Assistance Response Team personnel from across the country are currently on their way to Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, where they will also attend to issues in neighboring Haiti, according to three State Department officials. They are expected to arrive in the next 24-48 hours.

The officials, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because the teams are not yet on the ground, said anticipated needs include temporary housing, food and hygiene kits.

They said the U.S. military could play a role in transporting personnel and supplies to remote areas needing help but that a decision on the scale of such involvement had not yet been made.