Overview
- Authorities report more than 30 deaths across Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, including at least 25 in Haiti, with officials warning totals will rise as isolated areas are reached.
- Roughly 70%–77% of Jamaican customers remain without electricity and more than 130 roads are blocked, while tens of thousands shelter and commercial flights have only partially resumed.
- Jamaica is a declared disaster area as satellite and ground reports show towns like Black River in St. Elizabeth largely flattened, with key facilities including the local hospital devastated.
- Canada announced $7 million in humanitarian relief, including $2 million for the World Food Programme in Jamaica, as U.S.-based NGOs and diaspora groups rush supplies and teams.
- After its Category 5 landfall in Jamaica, Melissa weakened over Cuba and the Bahamas and approached Bermuda as a Category 1–2 system with 105 mph winds, with officials maintaining cautions there.