Overview
- Jamaica confirms 19 deaths, with officials expecting more as recoveries continue, and 462,000 customers still without power as relief flights arrive and U.S. medevac helicopters are en route.
- Haiti reports at least 31 dead and 20 missing, including 10 children in Petit-Goâve after a river overflow, and authorities warn of cholera risk from contaminated water.
- Cuba records extensive damage after a Category 3 strike and large-scale evacuations around Santiago de Cuba, with no deaths reported so far.
- NOAA says Melissa tied the 1935 record for the most intense Atlantic landfall in Jamaica, and rapid analyses estimate human-caused warming made such a storm roughly four times more likely and added about 11 mph to its winds.
- Early assessments estimate $48 billion to $52 billion in damage and economic losses across the western Caribbean, with officials cautioning that totals could rise as access improves.