Hurricane Melissa, once a roaring Category 5 storm and among the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic, has weakened into open waters, but its deadly legacy lingers across the Caribbean – with at least 50 people dead, thousands displaced and damages topping tens of billions of dollars.
The storm carved a catastrophic path through Jamaica, Haiti and parts of Cuba and the Bahamas earlier this week before moving north of Bermuda late Thursday as a Category 2 hurricane, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Sustained winds of up to 155 kilometers per hour battered the British territory, but the island escaped major damage as the storm’s core stayed offshore.
Jamaica’s west in ruins
Jamaica bore the brunt of Melissa’s fury when it made landfall Tuesday on the island’s southwest coast with winds peaking at 295 km/h.
