There’s arguably no greater force of nature than a Category 5 hurricane. In late October 2025, Hurricane Melissa rampaged through the Caribbean, leaving destruction, devastation, grief, and resilience in its wake. From Jamaica’s shattered shorelines to submerged towns in Cuba, Melissa will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most destructive hurricanes of modern-day history.
Jamaica: Catastrophic Category 5 Landfall
Date of Landfall: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Maximum Sustained Winds: 185 mph (295 kph)
Category: 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, the highest category
When Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica, it did so at a level that was unprecedented. Meteorologists confirmed it as methodically the strongest hurricane to ever strike Jamaica since records began in 1851–a sobering reminder of such an extraordinarily high level of intensity.
Winds of Destruction
Melissa’s violent winds reaching 185 mph screamed across the island like a freight train. Roofs were torn from homes and public structures, trees snapped like matchsticks, and power lines draped across roads. The island’s power grid would collapse and fail, and over 500,000 customers, or 77% of all households, would lose power.
Entire communities from the southwestern region experienced the brunt of the hurricane’s assault. The parish of St. Elizabeth, to the southwest, was noted by local leaders as being entirely “underwater.” The combination of hurricane-force winds and torrential rain turned roads into rivers and neighborhoods became isolated islands.
Flooding and Landslides
Melissa’sInstead of quickly moving through the Earth system like a quick strike or retreat, Melissa lingered for hours over Jamaica, deluging the land with rain. These hours of rain caused flooding and landslides across the island – particularly in the mountainous regions where loose soils and steep elevations brought destruction.
As rivers swelled, entire bridges fell away, critical roadways were blocked, and many rural communities were cut off from access. Emergency response teams struggled to reach affected areas and evacuate hundreds of people, and several thousand climbed roofs or higher ground as floodwaters rose and moved into their homes.
Lost Lives and Displacements
Although countless lives were spared through early warnings and evacuation, Hurricane Melissa claimed at least three lives while in Jamaica. Authorities later reported that almost 15,000 Jamaican residents were seeking shelter in emergency shelters implemented by the government in response to the hurricane.
Hurricane Melissa impacted the critical infrastructure on the island, since four major hospitals were affected by flooding, loss of power, and in various states of structural failure. Across the island, public health services scrambled to provide emergency care, and humanitarian response agencies began working to provide immediate recovery of access to health care and accessible safe water/sanitation supplies.
Cuba: Flooded by Rain and Storm Surge
Date of landfall: Wednesday October 29, 2025
Strength: Category 3 (after decreasing strength while in Jamaica)
Location of landfall: Near Chivirico, Eastern Cuba
Hurricane Melissa continued northward towards eastern Cuba after its devastating impact on Jamaica, and made landfall near Chivirico as a Cat 3 hurricane. Although the wind speeds were diminished, hurricane Melissa still came with great destructive capacity – this time from steady rain and storm surge flooding.Life-Threatening Floods
Meteorologists projected rainfall between 10 to 20 inches, with localized zones getting as much as 25 inches during a catastrophic flooding event. The low-lying coastal areas and mountain communities faced additional threats of flash floods from swollen rivers and landslides from saturated hillsides.
Inundated towns in Santiago de Cuba and Granma provinces were devastated within hours. The streets became rivers, crops were destroyed, and hundreds of houses were raised. Authorities called the flooding event “one of the worst floods in decades.”
Mass Evacuations
Cuban authorities acted quickly in response to previous disasters. More than 735,000 individuals were evacuated from vulnerable coastal and low-lying areas prior to the hurricane, and taken to either government shelters or the inland safer regions. The country has an efficient and strong disaster-management system that was openly recognized, and likely saved thousands of lives.
Despite, the amount of flooding and damage of infrastructure was staggering. Communication lines were down, bridges had collapsed, and transport routes were blocked by mudslides and debris. Emergency services were continuously working through the night to rescue stranded families and distribute food, water, and medical supplies.
Storm Surge and Coastal Damage
In addition to rainfall, a high storm surge advanced on Cuba’s southern coast. Some areas experienced waves above 12 feet, destroying sea walls and flooding coastal roads and fishing villages. The surge led to saltwater contamination of freshwater sources, which was expected to last for weeks until after the storm had ceased.A Larger Regional Effect
The destructive pathway of Hurricane Melissa initiated as a tropical storm crossing over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and later over Jamaica and Cuba. The storm caused flooding in countries across the islands, and has been associated with at least seven deaths, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, before quickly strengthening to hurricane status.
Melissa went from a relatively benign tropical storm to a Category 5 monster in a matter of hours, one of the fastest intensifications on record in the Atlantic. Meteorologists cited the explosive intensification as due to sea surface temperatures in the Caribbean that were on average 1.4 °C warmer than normal.
Scientists are warning that this is all a manifestation of climate change – specifically that it is warmer oceans that provide hurricanes the energy to intensify quickly and maintain intensity for longer periods of time.
After devastating Cuba, the forecast for Melissa would have the system moving over the southeastern Bahamas and potentially the central Bahamas as well as towards Bermuda later in the week. Fortunately for the Northern Caribbean, the storm began to weaken over cooler waters, sparing the Region from a more disastrous outcome.
Human and Environmental Cost
The aftermath of Hurricane Melissa has left the vast majority of the Caribbean in disbelief. In Jamaica, people are returning to neighborhoods where houses have fallen apart and where power is out in many areas.Emergency responders are still moving through wastewater and debris across eastern Cuba to get to families trapped in isolated neighborhoods.
Infrastructure and Economic Effects
Power and Communications: Massive power outages were reported throughout Jamaica and parts of Cuba, and power restoration may not be restored for weeks due to the extensive damage to power lines and substations.
Agriculture: Plantations were devastated across both islands, including lost sugarcane, coffee, and bananas as well as farms for livestock obliterated from flooding.
Tourism: The tourism industry for Jamaica and Cuba has been central to their economies, and airports, hotels, and coastal resorts have experienced damage that will take time to recover.
Health & Safety: Polluted floodwaters, lack of clean drinking water supply, and hospitals out of service will result in greater risks of disease after the storm passed.
Total damages in dollars will be in the billions, although this is an ongoing assessment. Each of these respective countries will take months, if not potentially years, to recover.
Climate Change: The Unseen Driver Behind the Storm
Hurricane Melissa was not only an extreme weather event but a stark reminder of how climate change is modifying weather systems. Scientists have warned for some time that warmer surface temperatures of the sea and increased moisture in the atmosphere will create storms that are stronger, slowed-down, and wetter.
Similar to many storms before it, the rapid intensification of Melissa captured those aspects of reality when it went from a tropical storm to a Category 5 cyclone in 36 hours. In case of Melissa, the slow forward movement of the storm rotor meant that rain over Jamaica fell longer than it would normally, and limited the extent and effectiveness of the effects of the storm.
These trends warn a very concerning future for the Caribbean. As island nations are at the front lines of reality for climate change but are also the least contributors of greenhouse gas emissions.
Resilience and Recovery: Looking Forward
In the ears of all of this tragedy lies stories of resilience and community — in Jamaica and Cuba, community members helped others in the community for away safety for those most vulnerable (fishermen helped brothers evacuate, doctors visited hospitals in areas to open clinics after flooding).
Both countries’ governments, and international agencies, started to mobilize emergency assistance and recovery grants of hundreds of pre-packaged food supplies, medical kits of various sorts, and monetary leverages to reconstruct.
Experts state that we will need to further invest not only just immediate assistance in response to disaster, but also invest in building and strengthening communities that can withstand climate events moving forward (e.g., further investing in strengthening infrastructure, facilitating modern drainage systems, and improving early-warning technologies).
The future of the Caribbean will not only be based on reconstruction but also on smarter construction and communities that can reduce the impact of disaster in the future.
Conclusion: The Legacy of Melissa
Melissa will go down in history as a real tipping point for Caribbean weather. The record-breaking sustained winds, untold flooding devastation, and deadly human consequence confirmed that while vulnerable, the region is physically resilient.
For Jamaica, Melissa was the most intense hurricane in over 170 years. For Cuba, it was the extreme testing of state of affairs where rain continued raiding living environments. For our world, it was another demonstration that our world’s climate is changing faster than the state of existence is adapting to.
Now, while cleanup will continue, and survivors will begin to recover, we should acknowledge that we are coming back stronger, smarter, and are determined to face whatever storms will come next!