The devastating passage of the hurricane Melissacategory 5, At the end of November there is still bad news in Jamaica. The death toll from the cyclone has risen to at least 45, Jamaica’s Minister of Education and Information, Dana Morris Dixon, said in a press conference on Tuesday. The figure represents an increase from the 32 victims reported by authorities last week. The minister also specified that another 15 people are still missing.
Melissa It struck in the southwest of the island of Jamaica on November 28. It was the area that most felt the effects of the cyclone, the most intense this season in the Atlantic. The winds swept away trees and electricity poles and the rough sea caused the death of several people. There were moments of uncertainty, since the initial information did not reveal the precise number of victims Melissa left behind. The growth of the rivers and the saturation of the territory also caused floods, which left the parish of Santa Elisabetta, one of the 14 territories of the country located in the south-west of the island, under water.
The information is the result of investigations by the Jamaica Defense Force (JDF). It is in St. Elizabeth that the authorities detected 18 deaths, a figure similar to the number of deaths recorded in the island’s territory. This territory is followed by the 15 deaths in Westmoreland, the six in Saint James, two in Hanover, two in Trelawny, one in Saint Ann and one in Portland.
The Jamaica Public Service Company reported that 64% of Jamaicans, about 300,000, now have electricity. “This is a remarkable achievement given the unprecedented level of devastation we have witnessed,” JPS president Hugh Grant also said on Tuesday.
Grant specified that the municipalities where the greatest number of customers remained without service were Saint Elizabeth, Manchester, Hanover and Saint James. Jamaica has received humanitarian aid from numerous countries, but, in some cases, distribution has been complicated because there are still blocked roads and isolated communities.
The impact of Melissa He didn’t just target Jamaica. The eastern part of Cuba was also hit by the cyclone, a new blow for an island already experiencing an economic, energy and health crisis. The most affected communities were those in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Camagüey, Las Tunas, Guantánamo and Holguín. The six territories felt the impact of the cyclone when their category on the Saffir-Simpson scale had already been lowered from 5 to 3.
