'Total devastation': Hurricane Melissa leaves trail of destruction, flooding in Jamaica
The most intense Atlantic hurricane of 2025 made landfall near New Hope, Jamaica, on Tuesday, followed by a second landfall in Cuba early on Wednesday as the monstrous storm sliced across the Caribbean.
These drone videos from storm chaser Brandon Clement shows the horrific destruction of homes and communities in Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa on Oct. 30.
The most powerful Atlantic hurricane of 2025 has plowed into Jamaica after days of unleashing heavy rain, strong winds and pounding surf across the Caribbean. The Category 5 storm was at peak strength when it roared ashore on Tuesday.
Melissa made landfall near New Hope, Jamaica, at 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph. It was the first time an Atlantic storm made landfall as a Category 5 since Hurricane Dorian in 2019. It made a second landfall near Chivirico, Cuba, at 3:10 a.m. EDT Wednesday as a Category 3 storm.
Kingston, Jamaica's capital, was spared the worst of the hurricane, but western parts of the island experienced "total devastation," according to Daryl Vaz, the Jamaican Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications. Officials added that there is a "total communication blackout" in the region that took the brunt of Melissa's wrath Tuesday.
At least two dozen deaths have been reported across the Caribbean, the majority of which occurred in Haiti due to flooding, according to The Associated Press. The number may rise as officials assess the extensive damage in the wake of Melissa.
Tourists who couldn’t leave Jamaica before Melissa’s arrival experienced the storm’s full force and are now temporarily stranded on the island due to flight cancellations.
"We had to just hunker down in our rooms and ride the storm out," Debra Shields told AccuWeather in an interview on Wednesday morning. She is one of more than a dozen tourists from the United States who are at the Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort in Point Lucea, Lucea, Jamaica. "We're doing fine, we're all okay."
"The sound, I don't think I'll ever forget," Shields recalled. "The door sounded like it was about to break down. In fact, there's a big crack in the door now because of the wind. It sounded like somebody was grabbing the handle and pushing, trying to get in. It did that for hours. It was one of the scariest things I've ever experienced in my life."
Debra Shields of Houston, Texas, joins the AccuWeather Network from the Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort, where the area was devastated by Hurricane Melissa. She is among 15 tourists stranded there.
It may take many days for the full damage assessment to be completed. However, based on expert analysis by AccuWeather, the preliminary damage and economic loss estimate for the hurricane is $48 to $52 billion.
“There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said, according to The Associated Press. “The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge.”
Conditions deteriorated across Jamaica on Monday and Monday night as Melissa approached, with mandatory evacuations issued in areas where the worst of the flooding and storm surge were expected.
"There is a lot of flooding around the city," Storm Chaser Bryce Shelton told AccuWeather Tuesday evening while in Mandeville, Jamaica. "There are homes that are submerged, there are cars submerged. It is basically impossible to get out of the city."
Storm Chaser Brandon Clement is in Jamaica and warned that a humanitarian crisis may unfold in the wake of Melissa due to the expected widespread devastation. "It's going to take months for things to even begin to resemble normalcy after this," Clement told AccuWeather in an interview. "It's just a really bad situation."
Strongest hurricane of 2025
Melissa intensified into a Category 5 hurricane Monday, becoming the third storm of the year to be classified at the top of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, joining Erin and Humberto. It went on to become the strongest of the three with maximum sustained winds peaking at 185 mph Tuesday morning.
Another key measure of a hurricane's intensity is the central pressure, or the atmospheric pressure at the core of the eye. On Tuesday morning, Melissa’s pressure dropped to 26.34 inches of mercury (892 millibars), making it the third-most intense Caribbean hurricane ever observed.
Melissa is also the second-strongest hurricane in terms of pressure anywhere across the Atlantic during October, behind Wilma (26.05 inches of mercury, 882 mb).
Slow-moving storm magnifies impacts
The combination of Melissa’s strength and sluggish pace has amplified the danger for Jamaica and the surrounding islands.
"The significant danger posed by Melissa is made even worse due to its record slow forward speed. An exclusive AccuWeather analysis of hurricanes since 1971 in the same area of the Caribbean as Melissa shows that Melissa's average forward speed so far in this region is just 4.6 mph, which is the slowest on record," AccuWeather Senior Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin explained.
