Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica: "It will be catastrophic"

BarcelonaThe hurricane Balm, with maximum sustained winds of between 290 and 295 kilometers per hour, made landfall this afternoon in Jamaica as a category 5. Before its center made landfall, the Balm It had already left floods, devastating winds and landslides in the south of the island, where hundreds of thousands of people were without power and where thousands of residents were seeking shelter. Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti were also on alert.

The hurricane hit Jamaica around 12 noon (6 p.m. Catalan time) near the town of Bluefields, in the southwest of the island, still a category 5 storm with winds of 290 km/h, which had reduced after a while. At that time there were 6,000 people in shelters, very few still, since the island's government expected 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, will lose," Jamaican Minister of Community Development Desmond McKenzie, who is responsible for the disaster response, warned the population. There were also a quarter of a million Jamaicans without power due to the storm (out of approximately 3 million who live there). The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is coming for 1 directly affected by the storm.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) had warned shortly beforehand that this was the worst storm to hit the island this century. "For Jamaica, it will be the storm of the century, without a doubt." The hurricane was expected to generate tidal waves of up to 4 meters during the day and to exceed 70 centimeters of rainfall, approximately double what usually falls during the entire rainy season. As it moved across the island, the hurricane has torn off roofs, toppled electricity pylons and flooded streets. Many residents in the affected area had been trapped on their rooftops seeking shelter. severely damaged," explained the Mayor Richard Solomon. The municipal hospital had lost its roof, but the patients were believed to be safe, although about 75 had to be moved to higher floors. A local school had also lost its entire roof.

He Balm It's the most powerful hurricane ever to hit Jamaica, suggesting widespread devastation in the area. Jamaica is an island completely unprepared for a hurricane of this magnitude, and the fact that it moves very slowly, at about 15 kilometers per hour, adds to the fact that the storm impacts the areas it passes over for longer periods of time, causing even greater destruction. Xavi Segura and Àlex Sancliment explain, the ARA Meteorology team, which has been closely monitoring this exceptional situation. With an increasingly warmer sea due to global warming, such ferocious hurricanes are becoming more frequent in areas unused to such devastating phenomena.

Wind speeds have remained steady for quite some time between 290 km/h and 295 km/h. Pending official confirmation of the data, this places the Balm in the ranking of the most catastrophic that have touched ground in the Atlantic, comparable to the exceptional Dorian of 2019, that of Labor Day in 1935 or thatAllenof 1980. It even exceeds the maximum speed of the deadly hurricane Katrina, which reached 280 km/h. The atmospheric pressure measured at the center of the storm is exceptionally low. Officially, the pressure of the Balm It stands at 901 millibars, surpassing the 902 achieved by the Katrina. Therefore, the Balm is more ferocious. However, a mission of the Hurricane Hunters of the United States, which has moved to the Balm to analyze the phenomenon, it has measured an atmospheric pressure of only 892 millibars, extremely low and almost unprecedented, tied for the third lowest in a hurricane since records began.

In fact, the plane taking the measurements had to return to base to assess the damage it may have suffered due to the strong winds, which shows that this hurricane is unusual. The phenomenon will arrive in Cuba tomorrow at force 3, but still with destructive capacity in the south of the island. The NHC maintains an active hurricane alert for all of Jamaica, in the eastern provinces of Cuba (Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Holguín), and in the central and southeastern Bahamas. However, a tropical storm warning has been issued for areas of 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 arrival of the Balm.