The devastating passage of the hurricane Melissacategory 5, At the end of November in Jamaica it still leaves bad news. The number of deaths due to the cyclone has risen to at least 45, as reported this Tuesday by the Jamaican Minister of Education and Information, Dana Morris Dixon, at a press conference. The figure represents an increase compared to the 32 victims reported by authorities last week. The minister has also stated that another 15 people are still missing.
Melissa It made landfall in the southwest of the island of Jamaica on November 28. It was the area that most noticed the effects of the cyclone, the most intense this season in the Atlantic. The winds blew away trees and light poles, and the rough seas caused the deaths of several people. They were moments of unknowns, since the first information did not reveal the specific number of victims that Melissa left behind him. The growth of the rivers and the saturation of the land also caused floods, which left the Saint Elizabeth parish, one of the 14 territories of the country located in the southwest of the island, under water.
The information is the result of investigations by the Jamaica Defense Force (JDF). It is in St. Elizabeth where authorities have detected 18 deaths, a figure similar to the territory’s number of deaths on the island. This territory is followed by the 15 deaths in Westmoreland, the six in Saint James, two in Hanover, two in Trelawny, one in Saint Ann and one in Portland.
The Jamaica Public Service Company has reported that 64% of Jamaicans, around 300,000, now have electricity. “This is a solid achievement, given the unprecedented level of devastation we have seen,” JPS president Hugh Grant also stated this Tuesday.
Grant has detailed that the municipalities in which the most customers have been left without service are Saint Elizabeth, Manchester, Hanover and Saint James. Jamaica has received humanitarian aid from numerous countries, but, in some cases, the distribution has been complicated because there are still blocked roads and isolated communities.
The impact of Melissa He not only targeted Jamaica. The eastern part of Cuba was also hit by the cyclone, a new blow to an island already going through an economic, energy and health crisis. The most affected communities were those in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Camagüey, Las Tunas, Guantánamo and Holguín. The six territories suffered the impact of the cyclone when their category on the Saffir-Simpson scale was already lowered to 3, from 5.
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