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Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, battering the island with 185-mile-per-hour winds, torrential rains, and life-threatening floods. Video footage from St Elizabeth Parish shows the aftermath -- homes submerged, roads washed away, and entire neighborhoods reduced to debris. St Elizabeth Among Hardest Hit St Elizabeth, one of Jamaica’s largest and most populated parishes, was among the hardest hit. Authorities said floodwaters covered large parts of the region by Wednesday morning. The only public hospital in the parish lost its roof and power, forcing an emergency evacuation as rescue teams struggled to reach isolated communities. Officials reported up to 49 inches of rainfall, triggering landslides that blocked major roads and cut off several rural areas. Prime Minister Declares Island A Disaster Area Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared Jamaica a national disaster area, describing the storm’s impact as catastrophic. “Your homes may have been damaged or destroyed, and your communities and towns no longer look the same,” he said. In Black River, another severely damaged town, a storm surge of up to 13 feet devastated homes and businesses. Streets were covered with twisted metal, shattered glass, and broken concrete, while rescue workers moved through downed power lines searching for survivors. The Black River Hospital and several other medical facilities across the island were also heavily damaged. After tearing through Jamaica, Hurricane Melissa weakened slightly to a Category 3 storm and made landfall in Cuba early on Wednesday near the city of Chivirico in Santiago de Cuba province. Nearly 900,000 people were ordered to evacuate as the storm continued its destructive path. Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from US News and around the World.
