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Hurricane Melissa hits Cuba after killing 26 people in Haiti, Jamaica
Hurricane Melissa is pummeling the Caribbean island of Cuba after it first caused devastation in Haiti and Jamaica, leading to the deaths of at least 26 people.
Twenty-five of the reported deaths on Wednesday came after a river burst its banks in the southern coastal Haitian town of Petit-Goave, flooding and collapsing dozens of homes.
The mayor of the town, Jean Bertrand Subreme, said that people were still trapped under the rubble of their homes.
“I am overwhelmed by the situation,” Subreme said, as he pleaded for help from the government.
The other death on Wednesday was reported in Jamaica, after a tree fell on a baby in the western side of the island, according to State Minister Abka Fitz-Henley.
The storm was one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record when it hit Jamaica on Tuesday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
As it crossed Cuba on Wednesday, it weakened to a Category 2 storm from its previous Category 5 classification. It is projected to move into the Bahamas later on Wednesday.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness had declared Jamaica a “disaster area” after Hurricane Melissa barrelled across the island.
The hurricane ripped off the roofs of homes, inundated Jamaica’s “bread basket”, and felled power lines and trees, leaving most of its 2.8 million people without electricity.
“It’s not going to be an easy road, Jamaica,” said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council. “I know persons … are wondering what their futures are going to be like.”
Melissa took hours to cross over Jamaica, a passage over land that diminished its winds, before it ramped back up as it continued towards Cuba.
More than 735,000 people remain in shelters in eastern Cuba, with a hurricane warning in effect for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas.
The governor of Granma, Yanetsy Terry Gutierrez, said that parts of the province, including in the provincial capital Jiguani, were “under water”.
Officials in Cuba have also reported collapsed houses, blocked mountain roads, and roofs blown off.
The Jamaican government had lifted the tropical storm warning by Wednesday, but officials are struggling to assess the damage.
“There’s a total communications blockout on that side,” said Richard Thompson, the acting director general of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, referring to the south and southwest of the island.
McKenzie said that four hospitals had been damaged and one was left without power, forcing the evacuation of 75 patients.
Heavy damage was also reported in Clarendon, in Jamaica’s south, and Saint Elizabeth, in the southwest, where a landslide blocked main roads in the town of Santa Cruz, and winds ripped off part of the roof of a school used as a shelter.
“I never saw anything like this before in all my years living here,” said one resident of the town, Jennifer Small.
“The entire hillside came down last night,” said another, Robert James.
Prime Minister Holness said on Tuesday that his government was mobilising quickly to start relief and recovery efforts by Wednesday morning.
Even before Melissa slammed into Jamaica, seven deaths – three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic – were caused by the hurricane.
[Aljazeera]
US President Donald Trump has rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping within a week
He told reporters at the White House that Tehran “want to make a deal where they open the Strait immediately because they’re losing so badly”.
In a post on Telegram, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged Trump’s comments, but said Tehran would wait for an official response from mediators.
On Friday, Araghchi had told reporters at the UN in New York that an agreement could be reached “if the necessary conditions are met” and that these were contained in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the two countries in June.
The vital waterway through which around a fifth of the world’s gas and oil supply usually flows has been effectively closed since the outbreak of war in February.
“I’m rejecting their deal,” Trump said on Saturday, adding that the US already had “total control” of the strait, with “massive amounts of oil” passing through it.
“They want to make a deal, and I think that’s fine. I like making a deal, too. But that deal would not be acceptable,” he added.
Araghchi wrote that Trump “has made many good statements, as well as many contradictory ones, which unfortunately we hear frequently.”
He added that he would await the “definitive views” of mediators, and that Tehran “will make a decision based on that.”
On Friday the Wall Street Journal cited officials as saying Trump was sceptical that Iran would meet his demands and had told his staff that he saw a renewed bombing campaign as probable.
Iran responded to US and Israeli air strikes, beginning in late February, by attacking Israel and US bases in the Gulf and Arab Gulf allies of the US – as well as blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Its closure has caused wild fluctuations of energy prices.
The economic effects have also increased pressure on Trump to find a way of ending the conflict – particularly as the US heads towards Congressional elections in November.
(BBC)
Latest News
Landslide Early Warnings issued to the districts of Colombo, Galle, Gampaha, Hambanthota, Kalutara, Kandy, Kegalle, Kurunegala, Matara, Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura
The National Building Research Institute has issued landslide early warnings to the districts of Colombo, Galle, Gampaha, Hambanthota, Kalutara, Kandy, Kegalle, Kurunegala, Matara, Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura from 16:00 hrs on 25.09.2026 To 16:00 hrs on 26.09.2026
Accordingly,
LEVEL III [RED] landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Neluwa, Nagoda, Niyagama and Thawalama inthe Galle district, Ganga Ihala Korale, Udapalatha, Doluwa and Pasbage Korale in the Kandy district, and Kothmale West, Ambagamuwa, Kotmale East and Norwood in the Nuwara Eliya district.
LEVEL II [AMBER] landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Elpitiya, Baddegama and Karandeniya in the Galle district, Walallawita in the Kalutara district, Deltota, Udunuwara, Gangawata Korale, Yatinuwara and Panvila in the Kandy district, Aranayake, Dehiowita, Mawanella, Deraniyagala and Yatiyanthota in the Kegalle district, Thalawakelle in the Nuwara Eliya district and Ratnapura and Pelmadulla in the Ratnapura district.
LEVEL I [YELLOW] landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Seethawaka and Padukka in the Colombo district, Attanagalla and Mirigama in the Gampaha district, Katuwana and Walasmulla in the Hambanthota district, Ingiriya and Bulathsinhala in the Kalutara district, Hatharaliyadda, Poojapitiya, Medadumbara, Kundasale, Ududumbara, Thumpane, Akurana, Pathadumbara, Harispattuwa and Pathahewaheta in the Kandy district, Warakapola, Bulathkohupitiya, Galigamuwa, Kegalle and Ruwanwella in the Kegalle district, Mallawapitiya, Alawwa, Polgahawela and Mawathagama in the Kegalle district, Pitabeddara, Kotapola and Pasgoda in the Matara district, Nuwara Eliya in the Nuwara Eliya district and Elapatha, Ayagama, Nivithigala, Kuruwita and Kalawana in the Ratnapura district
Costa Rican President Laura Fernandez has fired Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar after he attended a US-led regional security summit with United States President Donald Trump without notifying her, an omission the government has said blocked her own participation and caused major strategic harm to the country’s interests.
Fernandez said that she should have been the one to attend the meeting of Trump’s anti-cartel “shield of the Americas ” alliance in New York. The coalition says its mission is to combat drug trafficking and organised crime across the region.
Tovar attended “without giving prior notice or informing” the president, a conservative Trump ally, of his participation, Costa Rica’s government said.
Several right-wing Latin American presidents also participated in the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Fifteen coalition members issued a joint statement declaring their intent to impose asset freezes and visa restrictions and seek criminal liability for members and supporters of 24 criminal organisations.
The gathering was the administration’s latest effort to rally the region behind a more aggressive approach to drug trafficking. Since returning to office last year, Trump has designated cartels as foreign “terrorist” organisations and ordered dozens of strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that US officials say were carrying narcotics bound for the US.
(Aljazeera)
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