Hurricane Melissa has killed at least 50 people across the Caribbean islands as it moves away after devastating communities in Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba. Authorities have warned that the death toll could rise further. 

The hurricane struck Jamaica last week as a Category five storm, caused widespread destruction cutting power to more than 60 per cent of the island. Nearly half of the water systems are still offline.

In the town of Black River, about 90 per cent of buildings lost their roofs and Nineteen deaths have been confirmed in Jamaica so far.

In Haiti, at least 31 people have been killed and 21 others are missing, primarily in the southern region.

Cuba reported no deaths so far but severe flooding forced the evacuation of more than 735,000 people from the eastern part of the island. 

Jamaica’s catastrophe bond, issued in 2024 in collaboration with the World Bank has been activated to provide 150 million USD for recovery efforts.