Hurricane Melissa is about to reach Cuba after causing devastation in Jamaica: "We know it will cause significant damage"

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The hurricane BalmWith maximum sustained winds of up to 205 kilometers per hour, the hurricane is approaching the coast of Cuba, where half a million people have already been evacuated from their homes. "There will be a lot of work to be done. We know this cyclone will cause significant damage," warned Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel in a message urging citizens to obey evacuation orders.

It previously passed through Jamaica, where it is already the strongest hurricane ever to hit the island and has forced the government to declare the island a "disaster zone." It made landfall Tuesday afternoon as a Category 5 hurricane. But before its center made landfall, the Balm It had already left flooding, devastating winds, and landslides in the south of the island, where hundreds of thousands of people were without power and thousands of residents were seeking shelter. It is expected to hit Cuba less hard, as it weakened to a Category 3 hurricane overnight.

At least three people died before the eye of the hurricane made landfall, but authorities say it is still too early to know the full death toll. Local media report at least a dozen deaths. "The reports we have received so far include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential, commercial, and housing properties, and damage to our road infrastructure," Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told CNN after the storm passed. Holness added that the government had not yet registered any confirmed storm-related deaths, but given the hurricane's strength and the extent of the damage, he expected "some loss of life."

The hurricane reached Jamaica around noon (6 p.m. Catalan time) near the town of Bluefields, in the southwest of the island, still a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 290 km/h, which had decreased after a while. At that time, there were 6,000 people in shelters, still very few, since the island's government predicted that a total of about 50,000 would be displaced due to the impact of the hurricane. Balm"This is not the time to be brave. If you bet against Balm"They will lose," warned Jamaican Community Development Minister Desmond McKenzie, responsible for disaster response. A quarter of a million Jamaicans were also without electricity due to the storm (out of approximately 3 million inhabitants).

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) called it the worst storm to hit the island this century. "It's a catastrophic situation that's expected in Jamaica," said WMO tropical cyclone specialist Anne-Claire Fontan at a press conference in Geneva. Rainfall was expected to exceed 70 centimeters, roughly double the average for the entire rainy season. "This means there will be catastrophic flash floods and landslides," she added. Many residents in the affected area were trapped on rooftops seeking shelter. A local journalist reported that her hotel room, on the third floor, was also flooding, and that about 75 people had to be moved to higher floors. Some schools in the area had also lost everything. The roof of the building. Stronger and fiercer than Katrina.

He Balm It is the most powerful hurricane ever to hit Jamaica, suggesting widespread devastation in the region. Jamaica is an island completely unprepared for a hurricane of this magnitude, compounded by the fact that it is moving very slowly, at about 15 kilometers per hour. This slow speed means the storm will affect the areas it passes through for longer periods, causing greater destruction. Xavi Segura and Àlex Sancliment explainThe Argentine Navy's meteorology team has been closely monitoring this exceptional situation. With increasingly warmer seas due to global warming, such ferocious hurricanes are becoming more frequent in areas unaccustomed to such devastating phenomena.

Wind speeds have remained sustained between 290 km/h and 295 km/h for quite some time. Pending official confirmation of the data, this places the Balm in the ranking of the most catastrophic storms to have made landfall in the Atlantic, comparable to the exceptional ones Dorian of 2019, the one from Labor Day 1935 or theAllenof 1980. It even surpasses the top speed of the deadly hurricane Katrinawhich reached 280 km/h. And it highlights the atmospheric pressure measured at the center of the storm, which is exceptionally low. Officially, the pressure of the Balm It stands at 901 millibars, surpassing the 902 achieved by the KatrinaTherefore, the Balm It is more ferocious. However, a mission of the US Hurricane Hunters, which has traveled to the Balm To analyze the phenomenon, an atmospheric pressure of only 892 millibars was measured, extremely low and almost unprecedented, tied for the third lowest recorded hurricane pressure. In fact, the aircraft taking the measurements had to return to base to assess any damage it may have sustained from the strong winds, demonstrating that this hurricane is unusual. The storm will reach Cuba tomorrow as a Category 3 hurricane, but still with destructive potential in the south of the island. The NHC maintains an active hurricane warning for all of Jamaica, the eastern provinces of Cuba (Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, and Holguín), and the central and southeastern Bahamas. However, a tropical storm warning is in effect for Haiti, Las Tunas (Cuba), and the Turks and Caicos Islands. In Cuba, for example, more than 420,000 people had already been evacuated by Tuesday in anticipation of the storm's arrival. Balm.