• Melissa strikes Jamaica as strongest-ever hurricane.
• Hurricane batters Jamaica with sustained winds of 185 mph.
• 10 children among 25 deaths reported in Haiti alone.
  

HAVANA/KINGSTON: Hurricane Melissa barreled through the Caribbean on Wednesday after thrashing Cuba’s second-biggest city, isolating hundreds of rural communities, unleashing devastation in Jamaica and drenching Haiti, where at least 25 were killed.

Melissa struck Jamaica on Tuesday as the strongest-ever hurricane to directly hit its shores, with sustained winds of 185 mph (298 kph), well above the minimum strength for a Category 5, the strongest classification for hurricanes.

As of 2100 GMT on Wednesday, Melissa was a Category 1 hurricane moving north-east through the Bahamas archipelago, which completed the air evacuation of nearly 1,500 people early.

The storm did not directly hit Haiti, the Caribbean’s most populous nation, but it hurled days of rain over the island nation. Authorities reported at least 25 deaths, largely due to floods in Petit-Goave, a coastal town 64 km (40 miles) west of the capital where a river burst its banks.

At least 10 children were killed there and 12 people remain missing there, Haiti’s disaster management agency said.

In Haiti, where a gang conflict has displaced over 1.3 million people, authorities said more than 1,000 homes were flooded. People living in makeshift camps said the flooding made it impossible to sit or sleep, and said the government and aid groups were slow to bring supplies.

Fortune Vital, a displaced man in Les Cayes, said he was separated from his family which already lacked sufficient food. “If the hurricane comes on top of all the problems we already have, we’ll simply die,” he said.

‘Like missiles blowing through the glass’ 

On Tuesday, Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica, devastating areas already battered by last year’s Hurricane Beryl. US forecaster AccuWeather estimated Melissa cost $22 billion in damages and economic loss in Jamaica alone, and that rebuilding could take a decade or more.

Local authorities said flood waters had washed up four bodies in the southwestern agricultural hub of St. Elizabeth. About 77% of Jamaica was without electricity, authorities said on Wednesday morning. The capital Kingston was spared the worst damage and its main airport was set to reopen Thursday.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness visited Black River Hospital, the only public hospital in St. Elizabeth, where aerial footage showed the wrecks of buildings, roofs blown off, power cables knocked down and fields strewn with rubble.

Hospital workers there said the building showed some significant damage, and staff told the prime minister they spent the night fearing for their own families while working by flashlight to care for patients.

“It was the most terrifying experience in all my life,” a hospital worker said. “It is beyond imagining. At one point it was as if missiles were blowing through the glass.”

Jamaica’s government gave an “all clear” to begin recovery efforts, but said it would keep emergency shelters open through the week as people kept coming in from devastated homes.

Local government minister Desmond McKenzie said over 25,000 people had been admitted. “No one must be turned back from the shelters,” he said.

Mass evacuations in Cuba

Melissa was a still major Category 3 when it hit Cubaovernight with winds of 120 mph, landing in Guama, a rural, mountainous area some 25 miles (40 km) west of Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second-most populous city.

At least 241 communities remained isolated and without communications on Wednesday following the storm’s passage across Santiago province, according to preliminary media reports, affecting as many as 140,000 residents.

Across eastern Cuba, authorities evacuated around 735,000 people as the storm approached. Most remained in emergency centers.

No deaths were reported on Wednesday but President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the island had suffered extensive damage and warned of vigilance as rains continue to lash the region.

“A major hurricane landfall in the dark is incredibly dangerous,” AccuWeather lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva said.

“The storm lost wind intensity as it interacted with the mountains of southeast Cuba, but the forced upward motion of the air over the mountainous terrain is squeezing out tremendous amounts of rainfall.”

Cuban officials also warned of severe impact on crops ahead of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter growing season.

Cuba was already suffering from food, fuel, electricity and medicine shortages that have complicated life, prompting record-breaking emigration since 2021.

On Wednesday, the UN General Assembly again voted overwhelmingly for the US to end its Cold War-era economic embargo on the communist-run country.

Loss and damage 

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 directly hit Jamaica.

But scientists say hurricanes are intensifying faster with greater frequency as a result of warming ocean waters caused by greenhouse gas emissions. 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.

The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, a branch of regional bloc CARICOM, issued a statement in solidarity of those affected by Hurricane Melissa and called for stronger efforts to curb climate change.

It said Melissa’s rapid intensification, fueled by record-breaking Caribbean sea temperatures, underscored need for the U.N.’s “loss and damage” fund to be scaled up.

The fund was established in 2023 as a mechanism for developing nations to quickly and reliably access financing to recover from more frequent extreme weather events. However, donations from wealthy, polluting nations have fallen short of targets and the US withdrew from its board in March.

The devastation caused by Melissa drew an outpouring of support from across the world, with some countries pledging support in the form of cash, food aid and rescue teams.

In Montego Bay, a popular Jamaican tourist destination, a resident told Reuters the water reached her waist and rescuers had to break into her home to save her and her child.

“All the trees that my dad planted, all of them are gone,” she said.

• Operation targeted Comando Vermelho drug gang.
• Over 70 corpses recovered by local residents.
• UN urges probe into Brazil police actions.

The deadliest police operation in Brazil’s history killed at least 132 people, officials said on Wednesday, after Rio de Janeiro residents lined a street with dozens of corpses collected overnight, a week ahead of global climate events in the city.

The tally from the Rio public defender’s office was more than double the death toll released on Tuesday, when state authorities reported at least 64 dead, including four police officers. The raids were targeting a major drug gang, the state government said.

Rio Governor Claudio Castro said the initial tally had only counted bodies processed in the public morgue.

Penha residents who went looking for lost relatives had collected many of the corpses from a forested area behind their neighborhood, according to people at the scene, where more than 70 of the bodies were lined up in the middle of the street.

“I just want to take my son out of here and bury him,” said Taua Brito, a mother of one of those killed, surrounded by weeping mourners and onlookers on either side of the long row of bodies, some of which were covered with sheets or bags.

Governor Castro said he was certain those dead from the operation were criminals, as much of the gunfire was in a wooded area. “I don’t think anyone would be walking in the forest on the day of the conflict,” he told reporters.

“The only real victims were the police officers,” he said.

The police operation came days before Rio hosts global events related to the United Nations climate summit known as COP30, including the C40 global summit of mayors tackling climate change and British Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.

Rio has hosted several global events over the past decade, including the 2016 Olympics, the 2024 G20 summit and the BRICS summit in July, without violence on the scale seen on Tuesday.

The Rio state government said the operation was its largest ever to target the Comando Vermelho gang, which controls the drug trade in several favelas – poor and densely populated settlements woven through the city’s hilly oceanside terrain.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who landed in Brasilia late on Tuesday from a trip to Malaysia, has yet to comment on the raids.

He met with Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and cabinet members on Wednesday to discuss the matter, his office said. Lula’s justice minister said on Tuesday the government had not received any request for support from state authorities.

Several civil society groups criticized the heavy casualties of the military-style raid. The UN Human Rights office said it adds to a trend of extreme lethal consequences of police raids in Brazil’s marginalized communities.

“We remind authorities of their obligations under international human rights law, and urge prompt and effective investigations,” it said in a statement.

US President Donald Trump appeared to close the door on seeking a third term in office, acknowledging that the Constitution bars him from running again after his current term ends in January 2029.

“If you read it, it’s pretty clear — I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday en route to South Korea, signalling a shift from earlier comments in which he declined to definitively rule out another bid.

The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution bars anyone from being elected to the US presidency a third time, but Trump has publicly toyed with the idea since he won a second term in November.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday that he had discussed the issue with Trump and concluded there was no viable path to amend the Constitution in time to allow a third term. “It’s been a great run,” Johnson said. “But I think the president knows, and he and I have talked about, the constrictions of the Constitution.”

Johnson noted that the amendment process would require two-thirds approval in Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states, a process he estimated could take a decade. “I don’t see the path for that,” he added.

Trump’s allies, including former strategist Steve Bannon, have floated legal theories challenging the two-term limit established by the 22nd Amendment.

Trump has referenced the idea at rallies and sells “Trump 2028” merchandise, though Johnson characterised it as political theatre. “He has a good time with that, trolling the Democrats whose hair is on fire about the very prospect,” Johnson said.

Trump, 79, also pointed earlier this week to Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential Republican contenders for the 2028 election. If he were to run again, Trump would be 82, making him the oldest president in US history.