The Caribbean: Hurricane Melissa - Flash Update No. 2 (as of 29 October 2025)

KEY POINTS

• Hurricane Melissa weakened after making historic landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm before moving northeast past Cuba toward the Bahamas, causing extensive flooding, wind damage and power outages across parts of the Caribbean and Central America.
• Heavy rainfall, storm surge and strong winds have damaged homes, flooded communities and cut key communications and transport links in Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba, while outer rainbands triggered additional flooding and landslides in Panama and Costa Rica.
• Governments in Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti have activated nationwide emergency mechanisms, conducted mass evacuations and opened hundreds of shelters while restoring essential services and assessing the full scale of damage.
• OCHA, CDEMA and UN agencies are scaling up coordinated relief operations across affected countries, deploying staff, and moving pre-positioned supplies. CERF released funding to support anticipatory action in Cuba and Haiti ahead of Melissa’s impact.
• Flooding, infrastructure damage and saturated soils continue to impede access, as humanitarian partners work with national authorities to coordinate response logistics to reach affected areas.

SITUATION OVERVIEW

As of 29 October, Hurricane Melissa has weakened to Category 2–3 strength with sustained winds near 100 mph, moving northeast of eastern Cuba toward the southeastern and central Bahamas, where a Hurricane Warning remains in effect. The storm made historic landfall in Jamaica on 28 October as a Category 5 hurricane—the strongest ever recorded on the island and the second most intense Atlantic hurricane after Allen (1980).

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) report at least three deaths, severe flooding, landslides and widespread infrastructure and housing damage. In Haiti, the General Directorate of Civil Protection (DGPC) confirms 23 deaths, 17 injured and 13 missing, mainly in Petit-Goâve following catastrophic flooding of the La Digue river. In the Dominican Republic authorities confirmed two deaths, flooding, landslides and water-supply disruptions affecting more than 500 000 people.

Heavy rainfall, storm surge and strong winds continue across the Caribbean. Conditions are easing in Jamaica and Cuba, but flooding and landslides persist, while the storm’s outer bands are producing secondary impacts in Panama and Costa Rica. Authorities maintain high-level alerts as Melissa moves out of the Caribbean.