Red Cross: Hurricane Melissa will affect 1.5 million people in the Caribbean

Published at: 28/10/2025 08:35 PM

The International Federation of the Red Cross reported this Tuesday, October 28, that one and a half million people are expected to be directly affected by the impact of Hurricane Melissa as it passes through the Caribbean, the majority of whom are from Jamaica.

According to the entity, quoted by international media, in Jamaica an estimated one million people could be affected, representing more than a third of its total population. Another hundreds of thousands would be added in Cuba, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

International media report that before the arrival of Melissa, a category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the Jamaican authorities prepared more than 800 shelters to receive the evacuated population.

The Minister of Health of Jamaica, Christopher Tufton, reported at a press conference that three people died while carrying out tree-felling work, in the midst of preparations for the imminent arrival of the hurricane.

Previously, Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned at a press conference that “there is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a category 5 hurricane,” and noted that the challenge will be the speed of recovery after the disaster.

The head of the Red Cross delegation for English and Dutch-speaking countries, Necephor Mghendi, explained that they anticipate serious damage to infrastructure, entire isolated communities and the interruption of essential services due to the force of this hurricane, considered to be the strongest hurricane to hit Jamaica according to records.

In addition, he said that after the passage of Melissa, it is certain that these countries need international solidarity.

For his part, the spokesman for the United Nations Humanitarian Coordination Office, Jens Laerke, specified during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, that when the hurricane leaves land, the priorities will be “saving lives, then food, drinking water, shelter and medical care”.

Laerke noted that later the respective UN agencies will focus on reconstruction, promising that “we will be there, as we have been before this happened.”

The expert on tropical cyclones from the World Meteorological Organization, Anne Claire Fontan, explained that the winds will reach 280 kilometers per hour, but there will be gusts of up to 350 kilometers per hour throughout the day.

“Within the eye of the hurricane, total structural destruction is likely,” he warned.

He also said that the hurricane will generate between 350 and 750 millimeters of rain in areas of Jamaica, equivalent to three times the monthly average, and that it can cause catastrophic flash floods, as well as numerous landslides.

Fontan did not rule out that a potentially deadly storm surge will also occur this Tuesday along the southern coast of Jamaica, with maximum heights that would reach between three and four meters.