Hurricane Melissa death toll nears 50 as Jamaica ramps up relief efforts

The death toll from Hurricane Melissa has climbed to 49 as the powerful storm continues to batter the Caribbean and move northward past Bermuda.

In Haiti, officials said 30 people have died and 20 remain missing, while 20 others were injured, according to the Civil Defence Agency. “It is a sad moment for the country,” said Laurent Saint-Cyr, head of Haiti’s transitional presidential council.

The nation’s southern regions remain particularly hard-hit, with widespread flooding and landslides hampering rescue efforts.

In Jamaica, where the storm made landfall on Tuesday with catastrophic force, 19 people have been confirmed dead, though authorities warned that the number could rise as search-and-rescue operations continue in remote and isolated communities.

The island’s Information Minister, Dana Morris Dixon, said emergency teams are working to reopen blocked roads and restore communication lines in areas cut off by floods and debris.

The storm struck Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane, with sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h)  the strongest ever recorded in the country since record-keeping began in 1851. Several towns in the island’s southwest remain underwater, and power outages persist in many areas.

Kingston, the capital, avoided the worst of the storm’s impact, allowing the reopening of Norman Manley International Airport to receive flights carrying humanitarian aid.

Meanwhile, in Cuba, authorities evacuated more than 735,000 people ahead of the storm. While Hurricane Melissa caused severe coastal flooding and infrastructure damage in eastern provinces, officials reported no deaths as of Thursday.

By late Thursday, the storm had weakened to a Category 2 system with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 km/h) as it brushed past Bermuda.

Tropical storm conditions were reported across the island, where schools, ferries, and the causeway were closed “out of an abundance of caution.” Meteorologists said Melissa was moving northeast at 38 mph (61 km/h) and was expected to transition into a post-tropical system over the open Atlantic by the weekend.

The British government confirmed it had chartered special flights to evacuate stranded nationals from Jamaica. “The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has chartered a limited number of flights from Jamaica for British nationals who are unable to fly home commercially,” the agency said in a statement.