By Sarah Morland
KINGSTON (Reuters) -Hurricane Melissa slammed into the southern coast of eastern Cuba on Wednesday, hours after causing devastation in neighboring Jamaica as the strongest-ever cyclone on record to hit that Caribbean island nation.
Melissa was last about 60 miles (95 km) west-southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba, with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest update.
It had subsided to a Category 3 hurricane since it roared ashore near Jamaica’s southwestern town of New Hope, packing sustained winds of up to 185 mph (295 kph), according to the Miami-based forecaster. That was well above the minimum 157 mph wind speed of a Category 5 storm, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.
‘SOME LOSS OF LIFE EXPECTED,’ HOLNESS SAYS
In southwestern Jamaica, the parish of St. Elizabeth was left “underwater,” an official said, with more than 500,000 residents without power.
“The reports that we have had so far would include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing and commercial property as well, and damage to our road infrastructure,” Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on CNN after the storm had passed.
Holness said the government had not received any confirmed storm-related fatalities, but given the strength of the hurricane and the extent of the damage, “we are expecting that there would be some loss of life.”
Melissa’s winds subsided to 145 mph (233 kph), the NHC said, as the storm drifted past the mountainous island, lashing highland communities vulnerable to landslides and flooding.
HALF A MILLION IN CUBA EVACUATED TO HIGHER GROUND
Cuban authorities said some 500,000 people were ordered to move to higher ground. In the Bahamas, next in Melissa’s path to the northeast, the government ordered evacuations of residents in southern portions of that archipelago.
Farther to the east, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic had faced days of torrential downpours leading to at least four deaths, authorities there said.
Local media reported at least three deaths in Jamaica during storm preparations, and a disaster coordinator suffered a stroke in the onset of the storm and was rushed to hospital. Late on Tuesday, many areas remained cut off.
(Reporting by Andrew HeavensEditing by Bernadette Baum)
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