What we're covering
• Moving north: Melissa made landfall in Cuba as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 hurricane, after devastating Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history. Severe flooding has hit Cuba as Melissa moves over the island. For additional coverage, watch CNN.
• Impact: The storm caused extensive damage to homes, hospitals and schools in southwestern Jamaica, but the full extent of the damage there is unclear with it hard to get to. Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the country a disaster area Tuesday, For ways to help those impacted, see here.
• A deadly storm: Melissa is responsible for seven deaths — three in Jamaica during storm preparations, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.
The worst has passed here in Jamaica, but the storm isn’t over yet
We’re getting to the end of the worst storm in Jamaica’s modern history.
Here in Kingston, the capital, the winds are starting to subside – but the storm isn’t over yet. Authorities are urging residents to stay in their shelters until sunrise, in about an hour.
The eye of Hurricane Melissa has passed over Jamaica, but its tail can still cause damage. The National Hurricane Center has warned an additional 3 to 6 inches (7 to 15 centimeters) of rain could still fall on the island. That would bring the total rainfall in some areas – particularly the mountainous parts in the center of the island – to over 2 feet (60 centimeters).
What we’ve seen unfold is truly catastrophic – especially in the parishes west of Kingston. Infrastructure has collapsed, and some communities will likely be isolated for days.
When we get first light, we’ll be heading out to take stock of the damage and see what we can find.
Video shows flash floods hit Cuba’s second largest city
We’ve been seeing video from overnight showing heavy downpours hitting eastern Cuba as people brace themselves for Hurricane Melissa.
In video shared on social media via the Reuters news agency, torrents of water can be seen gushing down the streets of Cuba’s second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba. Residents can be seen wading through dirty rainwaters, picking up their dogs to shelter them from the deluge.
Melissa is anticipated to unload 10 to 20 inches of rain across eastern Cuba, with up to 25 inches over the mountains, CNN’s meteorologists have predicted.
Such high volumes of water over steep terrain are anticipated to trigger flash floods and landslides.
How Melissa made history
• Second-strongest Atlantic hurricane: Melissa’s peak winds hit 185 mph Tuesday, tying it by wind speed with four other hurricanes as the second-strongest storm since 1851. Only Allen in 1980 had higher winds at 190 mph.
• Strongest Atlantic landfall tie: Only two other hurricanes in history have had winds as strong as Melissa when crossing over land. Melissa roared ashore near New Hope, Jamaica, at 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon with winds up to 185 mph. That ties with 2019’s Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas and the 1935 Florida Keys Hurricane for the strongest Atlantic landfall by wind speed.
• Strongest Jamaica landfall: Melissa was 55 mph stronger at landfall than Hurricane Gilbert, the nation’s previous strongest storm. The September 1988 hurricane struck southeast Jamaica as a Category 4 with winds up to 130 mph.
• Outburst of Category 5 hurricanes: Melissa was the third Category 5 hurricane in the 2025 season. The other two were Hurricane Erin in August and Hurricane Humberto in September. The 2005 season’s four Category 5 hurricanes are the most in a single season.
Melissa’s intensity will be reviewed by the National Hurricane Center in the months ahead, so where the storm ultimately ranks in history could change.
“It was terrifying,” says Jamaica resident after mostly sleepless night
A woman who lives near Jamaica’s capital Kingston said she and her 11-year-old child had weathered a “scary” night as Hurricane Melissa battered the island.
Already without power for two days, Wright – cofounder of the nonprofit Mind Food International – said she had to drive along roads strewn with debris and broken electrical poles in order to find a mobile phone signal. She spoke to CNN at around 4 a.m. local time from her car in Portmore, near Kingston, after the worst of the storm had passed.
Wright said Jamaicans had done their best to prepare for Melissa, including by tying down any objects that could be turned into “missiles” by the strong winds, but there are “some things that you could not have prepared for.”
Although Kingston, in Jamaica’s southeast, was not the worst-hit part of the island, Wright said it was clear the storm had wrought “quite a bit of damage.”
Jamaicans are waiting anxiously for daybreak, when authorities will be able to establish the full extent of the damage.
New Kingston resident left without power, water and news of family says, "It's a waiting game"
A New Kingston resident says she and her family are holding up well after Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica, but they are without power and water and haven’t yet heard from family on the western side of the island.
“We have been without power for a while now and without water. So now it actually is a waiting game,” Jhordanne Jones told CNN’s Brian Abel, “And we’re hoping that our family in western Jamaica is doing all right,” she added.
Jones described lashings of wind and rain during the storm adding that the extreme conditions caused worry for those who braced for floods. “There was a lot of uncertainty … We weren’t sure whether we’d actually get flash floods since we are in a low-lying and flood prone area,” she said.
Jones stocked up on batteries, flashlights and power banks ahead of landfall. Now, she is hoping power and water access will return shortly.
In the meantime, Jones said she is thankful to have avoided greater devastation but her thoughts are with her family on worse-hit parts of the island. “We’re very grateful that the storm actually was able to … move along as quickly as it did,” she said.
“We just hope that our family is okay,” she added.
Melissa over Cuba, hurricane-force gust reported at Guantánamo
Hurricane Melissa is tracking over eastern Cuba right now, bringing destructive winds, flooding rain and storm surge.
Winds gusted to 75 mph in the last hour at Leeward Point Field in Guantánamo, Cuba.
Maximum sustained winds are 115 mph, making it a Category 3 hurricane, according to the 5 a.m. ET advisory from the National Hurricane Center. Melissa is tracking northeast at 12 mph.
Melissa will move back over water along Cuba’s northeast coast later this morning. It will remain powerful hurricane as it tracks through the central and southern Bahamas today.
Melissa has made landfall in Cuba. Here's what to know
Hurricane Melissa made landfall as a major Category 3 hurricane in Cuba at 3:10 a.m. ET Wednesday after departing Jamaica.
The system is expected to track directly over southeastern Cuba for the next few hours, bringing damaging winds, flooding rain and life-threatening storm surge up to 12 feet above normal tide levels.
Melissa is so far responsible for at least seven deaths – three in Jamaica during storm preparations, three in Haiti, and one in the Dominican Republic.
Here’s what else we know:
Cuba
- More than 735,000 people were evacuated in Cuba as Melissa approached, according to President Miguel Díaz-Canel. “It will be a very difficult night for all of Cuba, but we are going to recover,” he said.
- Eastern Cuba could see up to 25 inches of rain in the mountains, which could trigger life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides. Parts of the island face up to 120 mph sustained winds with higher gusts near the storm’s center and up to 12 feet of storm surge at the coast.
- China sent aid parcels to Cuba ahead of Hurricane Melissa. A video shared by China’s ambassador to Cuba shows hundreds of boxes labeled “family kit” being transported from a warehouse.
Bahamas
- Melissa is on a path toward central and southeastern Bahamas where conditions are expected to deteriorate quickly by Wednesday. Evacuation orders have been issued for six islands in the Bahamas, including Acklins and Crooked Island, as officials brace for a flooding and a possible 8-foot storm surge.
- An official in the Bahamas urged residents in the storm’s path to take shelter, saying: “The time for preparation has not come to an end.”
Jamaica
- There were close to 15,000 Jamaicans in emergency shelters across the country Tuesday, including at a police station in the southwestern city of Black River, amid reports of extensive damage in St. Elizabeth parish.
- Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the country a ‘disaster area’ – a move partially aimed at preventing price gouging as food, water, and other goods are in short supply. The Jamaican government has rolled out an official website to streamline relief and recovery efforts.
- Holness said hospitals, housing, and commercial property have been damaged, and crews should be able to “start the recovery process immediately” on the eastern end of the island. By Wednesday, they should “be able to restore electricity, telecommunications.” The southern portion of the island will need additional days, he said.
- More than half a million people in Jamaica were without power Tuesday, with the most significant impact in western Jamaica, making up more than 77% of Jamaica Public Service customers across the country. Internet connectivity in Jamaica dropped to just 30% of normal levels by late Tuesday, according to NetBlocks, an internet monitoring organization.
- Around 25,000 tourists remain in Jamaica as the country begins its clean up from the hurricane.
President Donald Trump, who is in the final leg of his Asian tour, said the US is prepared to aid Jamaica in its recovery. “We’re watching it closely and we’re prepared to move, but it’s doing tremendous damage,” he said from Air Force One.
Hurricane Melissa is about the size of Texas
Melissa isn’t just powerful — it’s big. Texas big.
Texas is about 770 miles across from west to east, so you could say this storm is roughly as wide as Texas when you account for its full “wingspan,” or wind field.
Another way to picture it: hurricane-force winds (74+ mph) reach about 30 miles from the center, or about the size of the Houston metro area.
And the tropical-storm-force winds (39 to 73 mph) stretch nearly 200 miles from the core, which is about the distance from Dallas to Austin or Houston to San Antonio.
That means even areas well away from Melissa’s center are feeling strong, damaging winds and dangerous surf.
China sent aid parcels to Cuba ahead of Hurricane Melissa
China’s ambassador to Cuba shared a video on social media showing hundreds of boxes labeled as “family kit” being transported from a warehouse.
“The family kits donated by China are now being shipped from Havana to support the eastern provinces in responding to Hurricane Melissa,” Hua Xin wrote.
Melissa prompts evacuations in the Bahamas
Hurricane Melissa is on a path toward the central and southeastern Bahamas, with conditions expected to deteriorate quickly by Wednesday, according to the country’s Disaster Risk Management Authority.
Evacuation orders have been issued for six islands in the Bahamas, including Acklins and Crooked Island, as officials brace for flooding and a possible 8-foot storm surge, the statement said. A hurricane warning is in effect for the southeastern and central Bahamas.
“The time for preparation has now come to an end,” State Minister Leon Lundy said in a news conference on Tuesday.
Lundy urged residents still in the storm’s path to seek secure shelter immediately.
Watch Hurricane Melissa make landfall in Cuba
In the loop above, Category 3 Hurricane Melissa approaches, then makes landfall in southeastern Cuba.
The hurricane’s eye – its center – is surrounded by its most powerful winds, called the eyewall. Those destructive winds roared onto land well ahead of landfall.
Landfall officially occurred once at least half of the clear eye moved onto Cuba.
Kingston resident compares hurricane to "a boxing match" with multiple rounds
Like many residents across Jamaica, writer and Kingston resident Kwame McPherson has remained at home since Hurricane Melissa made landfall in the country on Tuesday.
From sensing the storm’s force through the winds and sounds in his home, he compared Melissa’s impact on Jamaica and the wider region to “a boxing match,” with multiple rounds.
“In the first round, before Melissa actually even ventured into Jamaica, we had a lot of wind and rain, and it was very, very ferocious – very vicious. And that’s when we got the introduction to Melissa. When Melissa hit, then it was another round, and that’s when it got even more intense,” he told CNN’s Rosemary Church.
“As she’s leaving, we’re still having a lot of wind and rain. So it’s almost like we had three rounds of Melissa over a period of three days,” he added.
McPherson counts himself lucky so far with uninterrupted electricity and internet, though he feels like he can’t comprehend the scale of the hurricane’s destruction from inside.
“So until a couple of days down the line … will we be able to actually know what’s happening elsewhere,” he said.
“I do have a feeling that the destruction, the devastation, would have been widespread, especially to the west-central and to the west of the island because of the intensity of the storm itself.”
Miami Heat, Carnival donate $1 million to aid Hurricane Melissa recovery efforts
The NBA’s Miami Heat, in partnership with the Micky & Madeleine Arison Family Foundation and Carnival Corporation & plc, has donated $1 million to the humanitarian organization Direct Relief to aid recovery efforts following Hurricane Melissa, according to the NBA.
“In Florida, we are all too familiar with the widespread devastation caused by a Category 5 storm,” said Eric Woolworth, president of The Heat Group’s business operations. “Our hearts go out to the people of Jamaica,” he added.
Direct Relief has prepared 100 field medic packs for Jamaica, which includes first-aid and triage supplies for front-line responders, the statement said.
Melissa makes landfall in Cuba as a major Category 3 hurricane
Hurricane Melissa made landfall at 3:10 a.m. ET Wednesday near Chivirico, in the province of Santiago de Cuba, as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Melissa will track directly over southeastern Cuba for the next few hours, bringing damaging winds, flooding rain and life-threatening storm surge. Its center is currently moving northeast at 10 mph.
Water is, by far, the biggest threat to life and property on the island nation. The storm surge along Cuba’s southeast coast could reach 8 to 12 feet above normal tide levels, with large, destructive waves making the flooding even worse.
And then there’s the rain: 10 to 20 inches, with localized totals up to 25 inches in the mountains, could trigger life-threatening, catastrophic flash flooding and landslides that will last long after the winds begin to ease.
Hurricane Melissa kept many indoors. A few teens stepped into the storm
As Hurricane Melissa battered Jamaica, officials implored residents to stay indoors, but for a handful of teens who had never experienced a storm that powerful, curiosity got the better of them.
“I’ve never seen a Category 5 storm, so I couldn’t help but imagine what it must be like,” Gavin Fuller, 15, told the Associated Press.
Despite warnings from his parents, he ventured outside to experience the storm firsthand. “I wanted to know what it feels like to stand in the eye of something so powerful,” he said.
Though his home wasn’t in the direct path of the hurricane, the tropical storm-force winds were enough to draw his neighbor, 16-year-old Demario Smith, outside as well.
“Yes, I do believe that the storm is dangerous, but I just wanted to see for myself what it is doing. Feel how powerful the wind is blowing,” Smith told the AP.
Melissa is now an "extremely dangerous" high-end Category 3 hurricane closing in on Cuba
Melissa is now a Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph sustained winds, just 80 miles southwest of Guantanamo, and is expected to make landfall on Cuba’s southern coast within hours, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The hurricane is moving northeast at 10 mph, which will carry the core across eastern Cuba through Wednesday morning before racing toward the southeastern and central Bahamas later in the day.
- Melissa has weakened slightly from Category 4 to Category 3, but remains an extremely dangerous major hurricane, per the hurricane center.
- Landfall is imminent along Cuba’s southeastern coastline.
- Flooding has already begun. Rainfall totals remain catastrophic – 10 to 20 inches across eastern Cuba, with isolated 25-inch peaks expected to trigger flash floods and landslides.
- Storm surge up to 12 feet above normal tide levels remains possible along the southeast coast.
- Hurricane conditions are spreading inland across the warning areas in Cuba.
Melissa won't stop at Cuba. The Bahamas and Bermuda are next in line
Once Melissa crosses eastern Cuba overnight, it won’t be done wreaking havoc.
The hurricane is expected to move through the southeastern or central Bahamas on Wednesday, likely as a strong Category 2 at that point. Even with some weakening, Melissa will bring damaging winds, dangerous storm surge and 5 to 10 inches of rain capable of triggering flash floods and landslides across the islands.
The Turks and Caicos islands will also be in the path of Melissa’s outer core, bringing tropical-storm conditions with hurricane-force gusts, dangerous surf, and up to 3 inches of rain that could trigger flooding.
By Wednesday night, Melissa will catch a ride on the jet stream and begin accelerating to the northeast over open Atlantic waters. But the historic and persistent storm will not be quite done yet. Melissa is forecast to hurtle toward Bermuda, maintaining hurricane strength, by Thursday night, where it could deliver a brief but intense round of wind and drenching rain.
After that, Melissa should continue racing into the open Atlantic — but its impacts and devastation across the Caribbean and western Atlantic will linger long after it leaves the region.
Jamaica declared a disaster area, prime minister says
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the country a disaster area Tuesday.
The declaration is partly aimed at preventing price gouging, the prime minister said in a statement on Facebook, as residents in the country scramble to secure essential goods.
“We must … continue to proactively maintain stability, protect consumers, and prevent any exploitation at a time when citizens are securing food, water, and supplies,” Holness said.
“These orders give the Government the tools to continue managing our response to Hurricane Melissa,” he said.
Trump says the United States is prepared to aid Jamaica
President Donald Trump said the US is keeping a close eye on the damage inflicted by Hurricane Melissa and is prepared to aid Jamaica in its recovery.
“On a humanitarian basis, we have to. So we’re watching it closely and we’re prepared to move. But it’s doing tremendous damage,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One, en route from Japan to South Korea.
“It’s literally just … knocking down everything in front of it,” Trump said of the storm.
