On 29 October 2025, Hurricane Melissa made landfall on the southeastern coast of eastern Cuba as a Category 3 major hurricane, bringing with it estimated winds of about 120 mph (195 km/h), heavy rain, and storm surge.
Hurricane Melissa had led up to this with a devastating direct hit on Jamaica one day earlier, having struck there as a Category 5 system with 185 mph (295 km/h) sustained winds. The western regions of Jamaica experienced particularly severe damage. Large swathes of infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, power grids and roads, were damaged or destroyed, tens of thousands were displaced, and the Prime Minister declared the island a “disaster area”.
In preparation for Cuba’s landfall, authorities evacuated more than 735,000 people from vulnerable coastal and low-lying areas, particularly in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo. The official government message urged citizens to remain alert and under shelter even as the storm weakened somewhat from its peak intensity.
The storm’s effects in Cuba included widespread flooding in mountainous regions (with rainfall totals reaching up to 25 inches in places) and considerable wind-driven damage to roofs and fragile buildings. After passing over Cuba, Melissa was forecast to head towards the Bahamas and then skirt Bermuda, still carrying the potential for further dangerous conditions.
Climate scientists warn that storms such as Melissa, which rapidly intensified over unusually warm Atlantic waters and made multiple landfalls at major strength, are symptomatic of a world driven by warming seas and an enhanced hurricane risk. Small island nations in the Caribbean are already calling for increased global support, including debt relief and climate adaptation funding, given that they suffer disproportionately from extreme weather events they did little to cause.
As Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas move towards the recovery phase, focus is on restoring electricity and communications, repairing infrastructure, delivering humanitarian aid, and tabulating the complete economic as well as social cost of the storm. Preliminary estimates have cautioned against extensive damage and long-term consequences over months or years.
The aftermath of Hurricane Melissa is thus not only a matter of immediate rescue and relief but also of long-term resilience: how the region adapts to a climate-shaped future of stronger, faster-developing storms.
