Hurricane Melissa, a powerful storm carving a path of destruction through the Caribbean, made landfall on Cuba’s eastern coast on Wednesday after battering Jamaica. The storm has already been blamed for four deaths in the region and has forced a mass exodus of half a million people.
According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, Melissa has been downgraded to a Category 3 storm but remains extremely dangerous, packing sustained winds of 120 mph.
In Cuba, authorities implemented mass evacuation plans, moving approximately 500,000 people from vulnerable coastal areas to safer ground.
This comes after the storm inflicted severe damage on Jamaica. News agencies report that the St. Elizabeth area is “completely submerged.” More than 500,000 people across the island are without electricity, and significant damage to hospitals and residential buildings has been reported. The four fatalities occurred in Haiti and the Dominican Republic as a result of the torrential rains associated with the storm system.
Melissa is now tracking toward the Bahamas, where evacuation orders have been issued for the southern islands.
