NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A massive winter storm made for a brutal travel day Sunday, with widespread cancellations and delays at some of the nation’s busiest airports.

Widespread snow, sleet and freezing rain threatened nearly 180 million people — more than half the U.S. population — in a path stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, the National Weather Service said Saturday night. After sweeping through the South, the storm moved into the Northeast Sunday, and was expected to dump about 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) of snow from Washington through New York and Boston.

More than 11,400 flights were canceled on Sunday, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said that as of Sunday morning, the storm is the highest experienced cancellation event since the pandemic.

By Sunday afternoon, the majority of flights were canceled at busy airports in the Northeast and elsewhere. LaGuardia Airport in New York closed Sunday afternoon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency said on its website the busy Queens airport grounded flights until 8 p.m.

In Philadelphia, 94% of flights, 326 flights, were canceled. Ninety-one percent of flights, 436 flights, were canceled at LaGuardia Airport in New York. New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport had 466 flights canceled, about 80% of flights, according to FlightAware.

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport said on its website that all airlines had canceled departing flights for the day, about 421 flights.

Significant disruptions also hit major airport hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Atlanta, home to the nation’s busiest airport.

Allan Lengel of Detroit planned to return Monday from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where the temperature has been in the 80s. But he’s staying until Wednesday after Delta suggested he change his reservation because of the weather impact on flights.

“Can’t say I’m disappointed. Frankly, I had been thinking of returning later because of frigid weather,” Lengel, 71, said, referring to conditions in Michigan.

American Airlines had canceled over 1,790 flights for Sunday, about 55% of its scheduled flights for Sunday, according to FlightAware. Delta Air Lines reported over 1,470 cancellations and Southwest Airlines reported over 1,340 cancellations for the day, while United Airlines had about 1,016. JetBlue had more than 590 canceled flights, accounting for roughly 72% of its schedule for the day.

Vikrant Vaze, a Dartmouth professor specializing in commercial aviation logistics, said recovery from the storm cancellations and delays will take days if not longer. And even for travelers who aren’t in areas that were directly affected by weather, cascading delays could still affect their travel plans.

“Because there are so many different airlines involved, I think it’s going to come down heavily to the individual airline’s network structure, the extent of hit that each of them has had, and just the intrinsic capacity of the airlines to handle these massive disruptions,” he said.

What you do if your flight is canceled

If you’re already at the airport, get in line to speak to a customer service representative. If you’re still at home or at your hotel, call or go online to connect to your airline’s reservations staff. Either way, it helps to also research alternate flights while you wait to talk to an agent.

Most airlines will rebook you on a later flight for no additional charge, but it depends on the availability of open seats.

Other carriers’ flights aren’t always an option

You can, but airlines aren’t required to put you on another carrier’s flight. Some airlines, including most of the biggest carriers, say they can put you on a partner airline, but even then, it can be a hit or miss.

You are owed a refund for a cancellation

If your flight was canceled and you no longer want to take the trip, or you’ve found another way to get to your destination, the airline is legally required to refund your money — even if you bought a non-refundable ticket. It doesn’t matter why the flight was canceled.

The airline might offer you a travel credit, but you are entitled to a full refund. You are also entitled to a refund of any bag fees, seat upgrades or other extras that you didn’t get to use.

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Yamat reported from Las Vegas. AP writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.

It might seem like a fortunate flop — only five hurricanes, when most forecasts back in spring called for eight or nine.

It was actually “pretty hopping,” said University of Miami meteorologist Brian McNoldy. It was also “weird” said Colorado State hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach.

“Overall it’s a strange season to categorize,” said Klotzbach. We had fewer than average hurricanes, about 70% of normal, but far more days with major hurricanes, about 150% above average, he said.

Though the season only produced five hurricanes, four of them were major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher, and three were Category 5 storms — highly unusual. The only other time that has happened in recorded history was in 2005 with Hurricanes Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

It was the first year since 2015 without a hurricane hitting the U.S., and the first time since 2010 with an “above normal” season with no landfalls.

There was also an odd lull at the traditional peak of the season from mid-August to the end of September.

And through some very lucky circumstances, nearly every storm in the Atlantic arced north away from land.

Tragically, Hurricane Melissa, the last storm of the year, was also the strongest and deadliest, with winds of 185 mph and impacts that caused more than 90 fatalities in the Caribbean.

Stormy expectations

Expectations were high (as in rough) leading into the season. According to June outlooks from Colorado State’s tropical weather center, the 2025 season was supposed to be above average due to unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic, and the fact that El Niño, which can hamper storms via wind shear, had dissipated.

Forecasters predicted that the 2025 season would generate:

– 17 named storms (there have been 13).

– 9 hurricanes (there have been five – Andrea, Chantal, Erin, Gabrielle and Melissa).

Protection forces and dumb luck

Fortunately, only one named storm, Chantal, made landfall in the U.S., when it rolled into South Carolina.

Powerful steering forces and a bit of “dumb luck” kept storms away.

The Bermuda High, a semi-permanent high pressure system that sits over the Atlantic and has the power to block hurricanes northward turns, was generally weak, so every storm traveling across the Atlantic took sharp turns to the north, away from land.

There were other fortuitous factors. Klozbach said that a low pressure area parked over the east coast for 5 or 6 weeks this summer blocked storms from approaching the U.S. It also produced a lot of win shear that would have hampered any storm that had broken through.

The wildcards were Hurricanes Humberto and Imelda. The two storms paralleled each other as they headed toward the U.S., with Imelda making a B-line for the Carolinas. But about a day before impact, the storm made a sudden dogleg out to the Atlantic, sucked away from land by Humberto’s winds.

“Imelda was a very close call,” said Klozbach. “That was really dumb luck that we had Humberto right there to basically tug Imelda out to sea.”

If Humberto hadn’t been there, “Imelda would have been a really bad rainmaker for the Carolinas,” Klozbach said.

Lulls-ville

During what is normally the peak of hurricane season — from mid August to late September — there was a lull in tropical activity. Klotzbach said that during the lull there were pronounced high-altitude, low-pressure systems — called tropical upper-tropospheric troughs — that sent wind shear across the Atlantic, nipping storms in the bud.

Hurricane Melissa, which would break records with sustained wind speeds of 185 mph, formed as a tropical storm on Oct. 21. It traveled over Caribbean waters with heat content that was “through the roof,” said Klotzbach.

That deep hot water was why Melissa was able to remain a Category 5 for some 36 hours – much longer than average.

This year’s hurricanes Humberto and Erin, which never made landfall, each had a six-hour stretch of Cat 5 power. 2005’s Katrina managed 18 hours.

“It’s rare to have no hurricanes in the Caribbean through mid October, and then fire off a Cat 5 – every year is weird, but I feel like in these last two years I’ve used the words weird and strange a lot,” said Klozbach.

The future

The season is essentially over. “I’d be very surprised if we got anything substantial at this point,” said Klozbach. Given the above average Accumulated Cyclone Energy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will refer to 2025 as an “above normal” season.

As for next year, NOAA suspects the current weak La Niña will be around through the winter and return to neutral by spring.

“The last El Niño was 2023 to 2024, so there’s a possibility of getting one,” said Klozbach.

An El Niño normally brings shear, which is bad for hurricanes. That said, 2023 was an El Niño year and was still very very busy, said Klotzbach. “That’s because the Atlantic was so dang hot,” he said.

Adrian Petrila, St. Pete Beach’s mayor, proposed tolls at the north, central, and southern access points to the barrier island, according to a report from WFLA.

Petrila said the city needs about $200 million to shore up the infrastructure back to a “good functioning position.”

Money from the plan would fix seawalls, stormwater systems, sewer pipes and more.

Business owners don’t agree with the move, believing it could cause a loss of tourism-related profits.

Read the full report on wfla.com.

“It’s a Hurricane Maria, an Irma and a Dorian all compounded,” said Michael Capponi, the CEO of Miami-based disaster relief nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), while in Kingston.

“I’m now 100 percent convinced that all the aid coming from all the aid groups combined will not even be a quarter of what’s needed,” Capponi said. “Here, you have a situation with way over a million people that are hungry and starving. You have an impending secondary disaster that is unfolding as we speak right now, and it will probably get much, much worse throughout this week and next week.”

Read more at Miami Herald.

The updates sent by friends and neighbors on WhatsApp confirmed what fisher Prince Davis already feared: Hurricane Melissa put a hole in the stern of his 50-foot (15-meter) fishing boat, and damaged the cabin and back deck.

His father’s boat was nowhere to be found. The roof of the house Davis and his parents shared in the small Jamaican fishing community of White House in Westmoreland parish was also destroyed.

Davis was in Nicaragua, where he’d flown shortly before the storm to find new customers for his fish business. But now his livelihood, and the livelihoods of many in his community, were in peril.

“It’s going to be very rough” said Davis. “With the damage now, no one will be buying products.”

About 29 kilometers (17 miles) northwest in Amity, also in Westmoreland parish, Denver Thorpe lost 15 acres (6 hectares) of mango trees and two greenhouses on his farm.

“There’s absolutely nothing,” said Thorpe, a farmer and regional manager for the Jamaica Agricultural Society, a farmer advocacy organization.

Hurricane Melissa is blamed for at least 28 deaths in Jamaica, bringing catastrophic winds up to 185 mph (298 kph) and storm surge that wrecked homes and public infrastructure.

While official damage assessments are still underway, experts said it’s already clear that one of the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded also dealt a devastating blow to tens of thousands of Jamaican fishers and farmers who feed their families and nearby communities.

Similar impacts will be felt by some of Cuba and Haiti ’s small producers, said Lola Castro, World Food Program regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“I would say every (crop) that was on the path has been damaged, there’s no discussion on that,” said Castro. “Some of the fruit trees may be recovered, some of the temporary crops will not be recovered at all.”

The destruction will impact how residents earn income and feed their families at a time when they must also rebuild homes and communities. There were already 10 million food-insecure people across the affected countries of Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, said Castro. The WFP does not have that data for Cuba.

In Jamaica, the destruction comes just 15 months after Hurricane Beryl impacted more than 50,000 farmers and 11,000 fishers, and caused $4.73 billion Jamaican dollars (about $29 million) in losses, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining.

“We were just about turning the corner,” said Thorpe.

‘The lifeblood of the most vulnerable’

Jamaica’s agriculture ministry did not respond to questions about sector impacts, but the country has more than 200,000 farmers tending livestock and growing bananas, melons, cocoa and much more.

The food produced is for domestic consumption and export — Jamaica is one of the world’s largest yam exporters and its coffee growers generate $25 million annually, according to the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association.

Around 80% are small-scale producers, working on 2 hectares of land or less, said Donovan Campbell, geography professor and director of the University of the West Indies’ western campus.

“Small-scale fishing and small-scale farming is what most people use to make a living,” he said. “It is really the lifeblood of the most vulnerable in our society.”

Farmers use October rains to plant crops to harvest before Christmas. Before the storm, the agriculture ministry urged fishers to move equipment out of harm’s way and farmers to move livestock and harvest any crops they could.

The devastation exceeded most expectations. Officials Wednesday said St. Elizabeth parish, known as Jamaica’s “breadbasket,” was “ under water.” The parish had over 35,000 registered farmers and fishers as of 2022, according to the Jamaica Information Service.

For fishers, Davis said it’s not just losing boats, nets and traps that endangers their work. Without electricity, there’s no ice to store what they catch, and customers won’t buy what they can’t keep cold. Lack of tourism will hurt demand, too.

The slowdown is worse for fishers who use most of their catch to feed their families and sell a little extra, he said. “That small income every day maintains their house and their family and their school and children.”

There are also special risks for women producers, said Davis and Campbell, many of whom are heads of household who support their children with the small amounts they sell.

Compounding crises in Cuba and Haiti

Cuba and Haiti face similar challenges, exacerbated by their political and economic crises.

The storm unleashed terrible flooding in southern Haiti and is blamed for 31 deaths in the country, where hunger was already rising.

Castro of the World Food Program said the organization is concerned about the impact to some of Haiti’s female producers, from whom the WFP typically buys produce to supply local schools.

“We may need to bring food from other parts of the country if available or even having to import,” said Castro.

In Cuba, the evacuation of 735,000 people meant the country suffered no known deaths, but Melissa’s passage could worsen challenges in feeding Cubans. The country faces a severe economic crisis and spends some $2 billion annually importing food products.

Local officials said there was damage to plantain, corn and cassava crops, coffee, various vegetables and trees across the five affected eastern provinces.

Government officials said Melissa’s heavy rainfall did benefit dams and reservoirs, after the eastern part of the country had been suffering from a severe drought and water shortage.

“That is one of the silver linings,” said Margarita Fernandez, executive director of the Caribbean Agroecology Institute in Vermont. CAI is raising funds to send directly to farmers and cooperatives there. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization also delivered seed to Cuba ahead of the storm, a spokesperson said.

Help arrives in phases

Relief efforts across the northern Caribbean are focused on immediate needs for now, as first responders and humanitarian organizations provide shelter, health care, food and clean water, and restore power and communications.

Food producers will soon need cash to make up for lost income, help replacing equipment and animals as well as new seed.

The Jamaican government keeps reserve funds, parametric insurance policies and catastrophe bonds for disasters. The government and nonprofits helped farmers and fishers after Hurricane Beryl replace what they lost.

But it can take a long time for that help to reach small scale producers, said Campbell.

With airports open again, Davis is looking for a flight to get back to White House. He needs to fix his boat, and his roof, but he doesn’t know when he will sell fish again.

“My worry is about when will the economy will be back to normal, where life goes on as it was before,” said Davis. “Everyone is picking up the pieces.”

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Associated Press writer Andrea Rodríguez contributed reporting from Havana.

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Rescuers and aid workers fanned out across Jamaica on Saturday to distribute food and water and reach communities still isolated days after Hurricane Melissa hit the island.

Essential relief supplies are now rolling into hurricane-stricken St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland, most of which had been cut off by fallen concrete posts and trees strewn across roads.

But in some parts, people were forced to dip buckets into rivers, collecting the muddy water for everyday use, while others have been drinking coconut water and roasting breadfruit.

In Westmoreland, mangled metal sheets, splintered wooden frames of houses and fragments of furniture littered the coastline.

Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr. was among several convoys of emergency responders en route to deliver ready-to-eat meals, water, tarpaulins, blankets, medicine and other essentials.

“The priority now is to get help to those who need it,” said Charles Jr. during a brief stop en route to Black River for the first time with long-awaited relief supplies. Prime Minister Andrew Holness had declared Black River ground zero and said the town will have to be rebuilt.

The Jamaica Defense Force (JDF) set up a satellite disaster relief site at the Luana community center near Black River where care packages are being dispatched to hurricane-stricken residents.

Many have been without vital supplies since Tuesday and quickly converged around a JDF truck as word spread that relief supplies were being distributed in the sweltering afternoon sun.

“Everyone is homeless right now,” Rosemarie Gayle said. “Thank you, thank you. I can’t say thank you enough,” she said, as she accepted a package of rice, beans, sardines, powdered milk, cooking oil and other essentials.

Melissa has left devastation in its wake, snapping power lines and toppling buildings, disrupting food and water distribution and destroying crop fields.

Some people have been walking for miles in search of basic goods and to check on loved ones, as more than 60% of the island remained without power. Helicopters have been dropping food in cut-off communities.

“People are in shock and they’re waiting on relief,” said World Vision’s national director of domestic humanitarian and emergency affairs Mike Bassett, who traveled to the town of Santa Cruz in St. Elizabeth on Friday.

“The biggest needs are clean water, tarps for roof damage, canned proteins, hygiene and cleaning supplies,” he said.

On Saturday, the United Nations’ World Food Program received 2,000 boxes of emergency food assistance shipped from Barbados, to be distributed in shelters and in the most-affected communities in the St. Elizabeth area.

“They will help meet the needs of 6,000 people for one week,” said communications officer for WFP Alexis Masciarelli.

One of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall, Melissa has been blamed for at least 28 deaths in Jamaica, and 31 in nearby Haiti.

Health Minister Christopher Tufton recognized that the death toll in Jamaica was probably higher as many places are still hard to access, but said that it would be unwise to speculate.

Tufton also warned about the risk of increased mosquitoes, waterborne diseases and food poisoning. “Please discard spoiled food,” he said.

Melissa made landfall in southwest Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane with top winds of 185 mph.

A U.S. regional disaster assistance response team was on the ground after being activated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this week, the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica said.

“The United States stands with Jamaica as they respond to the impacts of the hurricane and remains prepared to swiftly deliver emergency relief items,” it said.

Jamaica’s Water and Environment Minister Matthew Samuda took to the social media platform X in a desperate bid to find tarpaulin after Melissa tore off scores of roofs on homes in western Jamaica. X users chimed in to help, indicating where they had seen supplies.

Falmouth, a popular fishing spot on Jamaica’s north coast, had suffered significant damage including flooding and flattened buildings, Holness said on Saturday.

“Our immediate priority is to restore electricity and telecommunications and to ensure that essential services, particularly at the Falmouth Hospital, are stabilized,” he said on X, adding that Jamaica would rebuild “stronger and wiser.”

Following the devastation, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) said that it would make a record payout to Jamaica of $70.8 million.

The facility enables countries to pool their individual risks to provide affordable coverage against natural disasters. The payout will be made within 14 days, the group said on Friday.

Finance Minister Fayval Williams said Thursday that the CCRIF insurance policy was just one part of the government’s financial plan to respond to natural disasters. She pointed to a contingencies fund, a national natural disaster reserve and a catastrophe bond.

Government officials have said damage assessment is still ongoing.

Melissa had sustained wind speeds at landfall of 185 mph, which ties for the strongest Atlantic landfall in recorded history with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and 2019’s Hurricane Dorian.

The Labor Day storm hit the Florida Keys and killed hundreds of people, and Dorian hit Abaco in the Bahamas, killing 74 people and leaving hundreds more missing, according to the Bahamian government. The storm later caused at least 78 deaths in the United States.

Startling endurance

Hurricane’s don’t usually maintain Category 5 strength (sustained winds of 157 mph or higher) for very long.

This year’s hurricanes Humberto and Erin, which never made landfall, each had a six-hour stretch of Cat 5 power.

2005’s Katrina managed 18 hours.

Melissa stayed at Category 5 for 36 hours, the fifth-longest in recorded history, according to WPLG-TV hurricane specialist Michael Lowry’s Eye on the Tropics newsletter.

Highest hurricane winds ever?

On Tuesday, Hurricane Hunters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dropped a dropsonde, an instrument used to measure windspeed, into Melissa’s eyewall. When the dropsonde neared the ocean’s surface it measured a sudden wind gust of 252 mph.

“That is perhaps the highest windspeed measurement made by a dropsonde (inside a tropical cyclone) in history,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher with the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. He said it could be confirmed later this year.

Extreme intensification

A storm that ramps up in wind speed by 35 mph within 24 hours is considered by NOAA to be rapidly intensifying. Melissa turbocharged by about 70 mph during a 24-hour period. “That’s extraordinary,” McNoldy said.

WFLA-TV meteorologist Jeff Berardelli thinks Melissa is part of an intensification trend fueled, in part, by human-driven climate change.

Ocean warmth fuels storms, and oceans are warmer now than they were in the 20th century.

Berardelli found that the last 22 years (2003-2025) had more than twice the amount of Cat 4 and Cat 5 storms than the previous 22 years (1980-2002).

Going past mountains

One thing that stunned McNoldy when he looked at satellite footage of Melissa nearing Jamaica’s southern coast was that the significant mountains of the island didn’t weaken or put a divot in the storm until after the storm was over land.

The mountains in western Jamaica, where the storm hit, range from 600 feet to the 4,839-foot Mount Horeb.

“Mountains should interrupt the surface circulation,” said McNoldy. “Even if Jamaica were flat it should have had an impact, like asymmetries in the storm. And that just didn’t happen.” The storm maintained its pristine form. That “blows my mind,” he wrote on Bluesky.

What blows my mind about this is that #Melissa doesn't even notice that there's a large mountainous island right next to it. It's like the map outline was drawn on there arbitrarily.

— Brian McNoldy (@bmcnoldy.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T15:10:55.076Z

Melissa’s ability to collide with mountains and still have 185 mph sustained winds at landfall makes the storm perhaps more impressive.

The other 185 mph storms encountered no mountains. The 1935 Labor Day storm rolled over the flat Florida Keys, and Dorian hit the Bahamas, where there’s scant impediment to the storm’s rotation.

Melissa’s small diameter likely helped. Wide storms hit obstacles earlier, while narrower storms can approach closer before being compromised, McNoldy said.

“With really compact storms, they’re more prone to extremes. They can go really, really crazy and intensify, or with the first hint of vertical wind shear, they get upset and weaken. In this case there was no wind shear.”

Deep hot water

Berardelli calculated that the surface water under Melissa was about 4 degrees hotter than it would have been around 100 years ago. “That’s huge!” he wrote on X. “That extra heat powers a higher horse power engine with heavier wind & rain.”

But depth is what gave Melissa real staying power. McNoldy said one of the reasons Melissa was able to stay at a Category 5 for 30 hours was because of the deep hot water south of Jamaica at the time.

Hurricanes cause ocean upwelling as their spinning pulls water up from the depths.

If a storm is moving fast, say 25 mph, it’s constantly encountering new hot surface water, which fuels the storm’s power.

If a storm is moving slowly, like Melissa, which was traveling at 3 mph, it can pull up cold water, which weakens the storm.

Hurricanes need waters of at least 78 F to develop. McNoldy crunched the numbers and found that the waters south of Jamaica were at least 78 F all the way down to depths of 393 feet — the water that Melissa pulled up to the surface was warm enough to keep the storm strong if not make it stronger.

“It was over very high ocean heat content, so it could just sit there and not upwell cooler water,” said McNoldy.

Incredible view of a C-130 Hurricane Hunter flying into Hurricane Melissa. pic.twitter.com/SBY0gcTptz

— Turbine Traveller (@Turbinetraveler) October 28, 2025

The perfect storm

The hurricane hunter aircraft that flew into Melissa’s eye before it made landfall in Jamaica took video of the beast of a storm, and it looked almost like a sculpture, as if it had been spun on a pottery wheel.

“If you could ever pick a hurricane hunter flight to be on, it would be into a Category 5 during the daytime,” said McNoldy. “It would be really amazing. At that point, Category 5 storms have achieved perfection.”

Melissa will grow in size on its way toward Bermuda and is expected to pass northwest of the island. It could restrengthen more by Thursday evening, though it would be a “quick event” for the island with not much rain given Melissa’s faster speed by that time, according to Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The U.S. east coast should expect large swells and tumultuous marine conditions, as effects from Melissa combine with a storm traveling across the U.S.

The storm made its second landfall just after 3 a.m. Wednesday in eastern Cuba near the city of Chivirico as a Category 3 storm, a day after barreling into Jamaica with 185 mph sustained winds — tied for the strongest Atlantic hurricane landfall in recoded history.

Destruction reached far beyond Jamaica. At least 23 people have died across Haiti and 18 are missing, Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said in a statement, revising the death toll downward. Twenty of those reported dead and 10 of the missing are from the southern coastal town of Petit-Goâve, where flooding collapsed dozens of homes.

Melissa already had been blamed for seven deaths in the Caribbean, including three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing. At least one new death was reported in Jamaica on Wednesday after a tree fell on a baby. Authorities have found at least four bodies in southwest Jamaica as of Thursday..

Prime Minister Andrew Holness said up to 90% of roofs in the southwest coastal community of Black River were destroyed.

“Black River is what you would describe as ground zero,” he said. “The people are still coming to grips with the destruction.”

More than 25,000 people remained crowded into shelters across the western half of Jamaica, with 77% of the island without power.

Emergency relief flights began landing at Jamaica’s main international airport, which reopened late Wednesday, as crews distributed water, food and other basic supplies.

“The devastation is enormous,” Jamaican Transportation Minister Daryl Vaz said.

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, Melissa’s core was 605 miles southwest of Bermuda. The storm’s wind were 105 mph, up from 90 mph at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Melissa was moving north-northeast at 21 mph.

About 1 p.m. Tuesday, Melissa’s eye made its first landfall at New Hope, Jamaica, 75 miles west of Kingston, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph.

The storm’s impacts have been dramatic. Heavy floodwaters swept across southwestern Jamaica, winds tore roofs off buildings and boulders tumbled into roads.

Pictures: Category 5 Hurricane Melissa pummels Jamaica

The Jamaica Observer reported four people had been killed by the storm in St. Elizabeth Parish. Two of those people died in the town of Black River, about 10 miles east of landfall.

The news organization also reported that there was severe flooding in the mountain town of Mandeville, some 60 miles east of landfall. Cars were thrown asunder and flood levels reached the second story of shops and homes. Other streets were covered in debris-filled mud.

In Mandeville, Manchester, onlookers watched with hearts heavy and eyes filled with empathy as they took in the devastating scene left behind by Hurricane Melissa. Yesterday, firefighters rescued residents trapped in flooded homes, and today muddy waters still surround the three… pic.twitter.com/3aexuqEhV1

— Jamaica Observer (@JamaicaObserver) October 29, 2025

The U.S. government said it was deploying a disaster response team and search-and-rescue personnel to the region. And the State Department said non-emergency personnel and family members of U.S. government employees were authorized to leave Jamaica because of the storm’s impact.

Authorities said about 735,000 people that were in shelters in eastern Cuba had begun returning home.

Melissa is the 13th named storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.

Including Melissa, five hurricanes have formed so far.

Of the 13 named Atlantic storms, only Tropical Storm Chantal has made a U.S. landfall.

WPLG-TV meteorologist Michael Lowry wrote in his Eye on the Tropics newsletter that long-range models show conditions hostile to hurricanes, with a “winter-like pattern settling over much of the Atlantic in the coming weeks.” In other words, the tropics look mellow for the first half of November.

Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.

Jason Walker remembers the last time Jamaica faced a storm this powerful.

It was September 1988 when Hurricane Gilbert — a Category 5 monster — ripped across the island, flattening crops, destroying homes and cutting power for weeks. At least 45 people died and hundreds of thousands were left homeless.

Walker and his family were among the lucky ones. They only lost the roof of their Kingston home.

“I’ll never forget right after Gilbert left,” he said. “I stood up on what was left of the scaffold that used to be part of the roof, and I looked around Kingston. I saw houses without roofs, trees gone. I could see straight to Cuba, which I hadn’t been able to do before. I had never seen anything like it and never thought I would see anything like it again.”

That might change for those still living on the Caribbean island.

On Tuesday afternoon, Hurricane Melissa — a Category 5 storm with winds approaching 185 miles per hour — slammed into Jamaica, threatening to surpass Gilbert’s wrath.

The massive hurricane, one of the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin, is expected to devastate parts, if not all, of the island, which is known as much for its cultural influence as for its tourism.

Cleanup from rain, flooding, and wind is expected to take months, if not years.

“I lived through Hurricane Gilbert,” said Evette Taylor-Reynolds, president of the 48-year-old Atlanta Jamaican Association. “This is no Gilbert. This is more than what Gilbert was.”

Like many Jamaicans now living in Atlanta, Walker and Taylor-Reynolds have been glued to the latest reports on Hurricane Melissa. They’ve spent the last few days without sleep, trying to make arrangements for family members back home, while coordinating relief efforts.

For Walker, that includes his 91-year-old mother, who still lives in that same hilltop house in Kingston.

“I’ve been trying to make sure everybody is where they’re supposed to be,” said Walker, the president of Caribbean Georgia Votes, a nonprofit aimed at mobilizing civic engagement across the diaspora. “I had to move some family members, including my mother, to a safer place Monday night because once we looked at how powerful this thing is we knew that the house just couldn’t stand up to that.”

Walker’s mother was relocated to another home deeper inside Kingston with a stronger foundation and a slab roof.

“They’ve been saying it’s just as or more powerful than Gilbert, and Gilbert was catastrophic,” said Walker, who also hosts the online “Jay Walker Buzz Show.” “So we are all very nervous.”

As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica near New Hope, about 100 miles from Kingston, the capital.

“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation! Take cover now! Do not leave your shelter as the eye passes over,” the National Hurricane Center warned, citing devastating winds, flooding and landslides.

Melissa is projected to dump up to 30 inches of rain during its slow, violent march across the island, according to Jamaica’s Meteorological Service. Storm surge is expected to peak at 13 feet.

“Total structural failure(s) are likely near the path of Melissa’s center,” the agency said. “Widespread infrastructure damage, power and communication outages” are likely to isolate communities, it added.

Georgia’s Jamaican population is relatively small, representing about 0.7% of the state’s residents, or roughly 75,000 people, according to the Census Bureau’s latest five-year American Community Survey. Still, its presence is deeply felt in certain parts of the state.

There are vibrant enclaves of Jamaicans in areas you might not expect. In Newton County, east of Atlanta, Jamaicans make up about 3% of the population, the fourth-highest percentage in the nation. Only the Bronx and Brooklyn in New York City and Broward County in Florida rank higher.

Across metro Atlanta’s five core counties — Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton, and Gwinnett — an estimated 48,000 of the 4.3 million residents identify as Jamaican, reflecting a small but growing Caribbean influence within the region’s cultural fabric.

“Atlanta’s Jamaican community may be small, but it’s powerful,” said Caroline Sulal, who is also from Kingston and lives in Ellenwood.

Best known as a tropical getaway, Jamaica has also produced some of the world’s most influential figures. It was the birthplace of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the civil rights leader who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association; reggae legend Bob Marley; and an extraordinary lineup of Olympians, including Usain Bolt, Merlene Ottey, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the island in 1965, just three years after Jamaica gained independence from the United Kingdom, to rest and write.

As Melissa continues to assault the island, Atlanta’s Jamaican community has been engaging in relief efforts. Sulal is one of several local leaders helping to coordinate the response.

“We’re already mobilizing,” she said. “We’ve been calling the Jamaican Embassy and identifying drop-off sites around the metro area in places like in Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Fulton. This is our way of helping from here.”

On Monday, they met with the Jamaican ambassador to the United States to coordinate plans and begin raising money and supplies.

“Unfortunately, because we have so many hurricanes, we know what’s going to be needed,” Walker said.

But Sulal added that this one feels different.

“Even from afar, we feel the fear and helplessness,” she said. “I’ve been urging loved ones to stay in shelters because the flatlands flood with just a little rain.”

For Walker, Taylor-Reynolds and Sulal, the storm is more than a natural disaster — it’s a testament to Jamaica’s enduring spirit and the resilience of its people, both on the island and across the diaspora.

Even amid fear and sleepless nights, they return again and again to the same place — a deep pride, an abiding love for their homeland, and an unshakable belief that Jamaica will rise again.

“Those beautiful palm trees may be gone if the winds are as strong as predicted,” Taylor-Reynolds said. “The only good thing is they can be replanted, and they’ll grow again.”

After roiling across Jamaica, Melissa is forecast to cross over southeastern Cuba on Wednesday morning before heading back out to the Atlantic and avoiding the U.S. coast.

So far this hurricane season, the United States has been spared from a major hurricane landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center. Tropical Storm Chantal crossed over land near Litchfield Beach, South Carolina, on July 6.

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(Staff reporter Rosana Hughes contributed to this report.)

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©2025 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Residents walk through Santa Cruz, Jamaica, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, after Hurricane Melissa passed. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents stand on the wreckage of a house destroyed by Hurricane Melissa in Santa Cruz, Jamaica, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (Matias Delacroix/The Associated Press)

Dogs swim up a road in Great Bay following Hurricane Melissa in the Treasure Beach area of Jamaica, on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Hurricane Melissa knocked out power to 70 percent of Jamaica and caused communications outages so severe that even the government was struggling Wednesday to assess the full scope of the damage. (Abbie Townsend/The New York Times)

Lorraine Smith stands on her porch in Great Bay with her dogs amid flooding following Hurricane Melissa in the Treasure Beach area of Jamaica, on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Hurricane Melissa knocked out power to 70 percent of Jamaica and caused communications outages so severe that even the government was struggling Wednesday to assess the full scope of the damage. (Abbie Townsend/The New York Times)

A man checks his home’s roof after Hurricane Melissa hit Santa Cruz, Jamaica, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Men clear a blocked road in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in Santa Cruz, Jamaica, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People walk through Santa Cruz, Jamaica, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, after Hurricane Melissa passed. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix),

Men move a downed tree from a road following Hurricane Melissa in the Treasure Beach area of Jamaica, on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Hurricane Melissa knocked out power to 70 percent of Jamaica and caused communications outages so severe that even the government was struggling Wednesday to assess the full scope of the damage. (Abbie Townsend/The New York Times)

Damage at Frenchman’s Cove following Hurricane Melissa in the Treasure Beach area of Jamaica, on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Hurricane Melissa knocked out power to 70 percent of Jamaica and caused communications outages so severe that even the government was struggling Wednesday to assess the full scope of the damage. (Abbie Townsend/The New York Times)

Residents dry belongings at a house damaged by Hurricane Melissa in Santa Cruz, Jamaica, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Parts of the roof of the St. Elizabeth Technical High School are missing in Santa Cruz, Jamaica, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, after Hurricane Melissa passed. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People walk along a road after Hurricane Melissa passed through Spurr Tree, Jamaica, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix),

A man walks along the coastline during the passing of Hurricane Melissa in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People walk along a road during the passing of Hurricane Melissa in Rocky Point, Jamaica, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A man looks at a fallen tree in St. Catherine, Jamaica, on Oct. 28, 2025. Ferocious winds and torrential rain tore into Jamaica Tuesday as Hurricane Melissa made landfall, the worst storm ever to strike the island nation and one of the most powerful hurricanes on record. The extremely violent Category 5 system was still crawling across the Caribbean, promising catastrophic floods and life-threatening conditions as maximum sustained winds reached a staggering 185 miles per hour (295 kilometers per hour). (Photo by Ricardo Makyn / AFP) (Photo by RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images)

People walk along a road during the passing of Hurricane Melissa in Rocky Point, Jamaica, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Fuel pumps are covered in plastic at a gas station ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Melissa in Kingston, Jamaica, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

This satellite image shows Category 5 major Hurricane Melissa nearing landfall on Jamaica on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (NOAA/GOES-East)

Waves splash in Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Melissa approaches, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A couple jokes around on the coast in Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Melissa approaches, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Waves splash in Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Melissa approaches, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A man walks in Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Melissa approaches, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People walk in Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Melissa approaches, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Men remove a loose section of roof in Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Melissa approaches, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A man watches the coastline in Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Melissa closes in, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)