How about that weather?

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For those of us with Caribbean roots, seeing the damage from Hurricane Melissa hits especially hard. Privileged to talk to organizers in Jamaica who are already looking ahead. @adamlmahoney.bsky.social @capitalb.bsky.social
capitalbnews.org/hurricane-me…

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— Victoria St. Martin (@victoriastmartin.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 8:07 PM

From Capital B News, “Jamaican Americans Mobilize After the Island’s Worst Hurricane in a Century”:

… After Hurricane Melissa hammered Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, bringing 185 mph winds on Tuesday afternoon, it brought life-threatening storm surge and floods to Cuba and Haiti. It later turned towards the Bahamas and headed to Bermuda.

The storm, one of the most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic, left Jamaica reeling before weakening slightly as it crossed warm Caribbean waters toward its next target.

In its wake, dozens have died amid widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica. More than two dozen people died in Jamaica and Haiti as of Thursday. The exact death toll will become clearer in coming days once aid workers are able to reach more remote and damaged areas.

Simpson is the founder and CEO of Ignite Jamaica Fund, a nonprofit based in Philadelphia that does educational advocacy work on the island. Ever since the hurricane touched down there, she’s been reaching out to friends and family in Manchester, a parish in the western region. She said she wanted to “get updates beyond the media and hearing from them what they were experiencing.”

As the storm pummeled Jamaica, it brought the strongest hurricane wind speed to make landfall in 90 years. With it came catastrophic floods, landslides, and a sea surge up to 13 feet along the island’s southern coast. The storm knocked out power and telecommunications for much of the country, with internet connectivity dropping to about 30% of normal levels by Tuesday night, according to NetBlocks, which monitors global outages.

Power lines, roads, and bridges were damaged across the island, and more than half a million people were left without electricity…

The island is home to about 2.8 million people, about 90% of whom are Black. The diaspora of Jamaica — or the Jamaicans who have left and their descendants who live in the U.S. and all over the world — is estimated to be over 2 million people.

Daryl Vaz, Jamaica’s science, energy, telecommunications and transport minister, told Sky News that initial reports from the hardest-hit western parishes were “catastrophic.” In Saint Elizabeth Parish, where Melissa made landfall, floodwaters and flying debris destroyed homes and farms in what officials described as a “complete disaster.”…

Melissa made landfall early Wednesday in eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds near 120 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned residents late Tuesday of a “very difficult night,” urging them to stay sheltered. Officials said roughly 750,000 people were evacuated.

Melissa likely caused $7.7 billion of damage in Jamaica alone, according to catastrophe modeler Enki Research. But across the entire Northern Caribbean, recovery will be difficult…

Aid experts fear that Jamaica and Cuba could face severe public health challenges in the days ahead — contaminated water, collapsed medical facilities, disease outbreaks, and growing mental health crises. The United Nations has warned that budget cuts and reduced global aid donations are expected to limit the amount of food and emergency support agencies like the World Food Program can provide this year.

Much of Jamaica’s southern coast, its agricultural “breadbasket,” remains underwater after more than 2 feet of rain…

The government of Jamaica has set up an official website for updates on the storm as well as donations for emergency relief, housing reconstruction, and health care…

Links for other programs on the ground — including, of course, World Central Kitchen — at the link.

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World Central Kitchen (WCK) staff arrived in Jamaica this morning (October 30) with relief supplies to support communities affected by Hurricane Melissa.
#WorldCentralKitchen #HurricaneMelissa #ReliefEfforts #Jamaica #Hurricane #Melissa #Relief

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— Michael Barthel (@mibawi.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM

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I wrote for @msnbc.com about Hurricane Melissa, Jamaica, rapid intensification, emissions imbalances, and what a storm that strong might do to the US:

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— Dave Levitan (@davelevitan.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 6:28 PM

… Jamaica felt the full wrath of Melissa, a storm that needed only 24 hours to intensify from a tropical storm to a Category 4 behemoth. By the time it made landfall only 10 or 12 miles from Black River in New Hope, it had grown even stronger: Category 5, 185 mph winds — or maybe even stronger — and a slow, meandering pace that let it lash its targets with that wind and rain for too long.

This has become a grim hallmark of a warming world. Rapid intensification of hurricanes relies on conditions that in decades past were much more rare than they are today. A 2023 study found that the average maximum rate of intensification was almost 30% higher from 2001 to 2020 than it was between 1971 and 1990; the number of storms that leap from Category 1 to Category 3 or higher within 36 hours has “more than doubled” in that modern era compared to in the past. Since that study came out, we have witnessed, among other examples, Hurricane Milton’s wind speed jump 95 mph in a day.

The main culprit is heat. Abnormally warm waters — both at the surface and down below — helped Melissa gain strength, even as it took a leisurely path that in a normal world would likely lead its power to wane. That warmth is being added, year by year, via the greenhouse gases the world continues to emit. Saying so has become cliche at this point, but once again, it’s necessary to point out that the countries barely responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases are bearing the brunt of the consequences…

The other anomaly facing Jamaica and the rest of the region isn’t climatological, but governmental. The Trump administration has made some promising noises this week about providing aid as the damage becomes more clear, but it is doing so after nine months of attempts to kneecap a wide swath of government function and while, notably, the federal government remains shut down. Already, the difference in response to disasters rich countries’ emissions have helped fuel is plain: Only a year ago, the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, sent staff and supplies to the Caribbean before Hurricane Beryl arrived on its tear through the region, along with coordinating the response once it had passed. This time, USAID is … gone…

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Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba pick up the pieces after Melissa’s destruction
apnews.com/article/hurr…

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— Denise Oliver-Velez (@deniseoliver-velez.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 10:07 AM

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Cleaning Up After Hurricane MelissaPost + Comments (12)