Reports of major destruction and missing families have begun to emerge after Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Western Jamaica as a powerful category five storm on Tuesday, local time.
It is the strongest storm recorded to directly hit the Caribbean nation of 2.8 million people and most of the Island is reportedly without power.
In south-western Jamaica, the parish of St Elizabeth was left “underwater,” an official said.
“The reports that we have had so far would include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing and commercial property as well, and damage to our road infrastructure,” Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, said on CNN after the storm had passed.
Almost every parish in the country is experiencing road blockages, fallen trees and excessive flooding.
Four main hospitals are damaged and one has evacuated patients due to loss of power.
Mr Holness said the government had not received any confirmed storm-related fatalities, but given the strength of the hurricane and the extent of the damage, “we are expecting that there would be some loss of life”.
Hurricane Melissa is now a category three storm and is expected to make landfall in Cuba about 2am, local time.
Follow our ABC News live blog as Hurricane Melissa crosses nations in the Caribbean.
Melissa made landfall near the town of New Hope, 62 kilometres south of Montego Bay.
It was packing maximum sustained winds of 298 kilometres per hour, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an advisory.
By 3pm, local time, it had weakened slightly to 258kph, the NHC said, but remained a category five storm, the most powerful level on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
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Jamaican officials say at least three families were trapped in floodwaters in the community of Black River in Jamaica’s west.
Crews were unable to help them because of dangerous weather conditions, said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chair of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council.
“Roofs were flying off,” he said.
“We are hoping and praying that the situation will ease so that some attempt can be made to get to those persons.”
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Mr McKenzie said there were no confirmed reports of deaths and stressed that it was too early to talk about the extent of the damage because the storm was still pummelling the island.
There have also been reports of people being electrocuted by live powerlines in flooded areas.
Robian Williams, a journalist in the Jamaican capital of Kingston, told ABC NewsRadio that western Jamaica was being hit the hardest.
“It is just really scary. Most of the western parishes, Westmoreland, St Elizabeth, they’re being pounded,” she said.
The slow-moving storm is forecast to remain a powerful hurricane as it crosses the mountainous island, with highland communities that are vulnerable to landslides and flooding.
The storm is expected to head towards Santiago de Cuba, Cuba’s second-largest city.
The Miami-based hurricane centre warned that “total structural failure” was likely in Melissa’s path.
Residents in Jamaica battened down ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Melissa. (AP: Matias Delacroix)
“The destruction could be unlike anything people in Jamaica have seen before,” US forecaster AccuWeather’s lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva said.
“The island has never taken a direct hit from a category four or a category five hurricane in recorded history.”
Melissa is the third-most intense hurricane observed in the Caribbean after Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988.
Local Government Minister Desmond Mackenzie said nearly all customers of Jamaica Public Service, which is the only electricity provider in Jamaica, were without power.
“Over 530,000 Jamaicans representing 77 and a third per cent of JPS customers island wide are without electricity,” he said.
“Work is presently on the way to restore our service to give priorities to critical facilities such as hospitals and water pumping stations, weather permitting.”
Climate crisis frustration
Colin Bogle, a local adviser to aid group Mercy Corps in Portmore, near Jamaica’s capital, said he heard a loud explosion in the morning then everything went dark.
Sheltering with his grandmother, he reported hearing relentless noise and saw trees violently tossed in the wind.
Hurricane Melissa moved north in the Caribbean Sea towards Jamaica and Cuba. (Reuters/CIRA/NOAA)
“People are scared. Memories of Hurricane Gilbert run deep, and there is frustration that Jamaica continues to face the worst consequences of a climate crisis we did not cause,” he said.
“Food aid will be needed, but recovery support like seeds, tools and repairs for vehicles will be just as critical to help people restore their livelihoods.”
Hurricane Melissa hits Jamaica as trees block a road in Gordon Town. (Reuters: Gilbert Bellamy)
Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie told reporters that nearly 6,000 people had moved into temporary shelters.
The government had issued mandatory evacuation orders for about 28,000 people, but some were reluctant to leave their homes.
“We’re getting videos and pictures of severely damaged public infrastructure — hospitals, places of safety … so it is having the effect that was projected,” Jamaican Environment Minister Matthew Samuda told CNN.
“We are happy that there is some weakening, but 165 miles per hour [266kph] — that is still a catastrophe,” he said, noting that 70 per cent of the population lived within 5km of the ocean.
People take shelter in a school as Hurricane Melissa hits Jamaica. (AP: Matias Delacroix)
In Portland Cottage, 150km south-east of where Melissa made landfall, 64-year-old retiree Collin Henry McDonald told Reuters his community was seeing strong rain and winds, but his concrete roof was holding steady.
“It’s like a roaring lion. It’s mad. Really mad,” he said.
Health authorities in south-eastern Jamaica have warned residents to watch out for crocodiles that could be displaced from swamps and rivers and come into residential areas in search of dry land.
Melissa to Cuba as a category three storm
Hurricane Melissa is now a category three storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
“Maximum sustained winds are near 205kph with higher gusts,” it said in the latest advisory.
“Melissa is expected to remain a powerful hurricane when it moves across Cuba, the Bahamas, and near Bermuda.”
It is now forecast to curve toward Santiago de Cuba, Cuba’s second-largest city.
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“We should already be feeling its main influence this afternoon and evening,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a message published in state newspaper Granma.
“There will be a lot of work to do. We know that this cyclone will cause significant damage.”
Cuban authorities said they evacuated about 500,000 people.
In the Bahamas, next in Melissa’s crosshairs, the government ordered further evacuations for people living in southern parts of the archipelago.
Nearby Haiti and the Dominican Republic have faced days of torrential downpours leading to at least four deaths, authorities there said.
There is more rain on the way for Jamaica and Cuba. The US National Hurricane Center says this will cause life-threatening flash flooding and numerous landslides.
“Melissa is expected to bring an additional 6 to 12 inches [15 to 30cm] across Jamaica, where storm total amounts will be between 12 to 24 inches,” the advisory said.
“Ongoing catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides will continue through Tuesday night [in Jamaica].
“For eastern Cuba, storm total rainfall of 10 to 20 inches is expected through Wednesday.
“This will cause life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flash flooding with numerous landslides.”
ABC/Wires