LEILA FADEL, HOST:
As the sun rises over Jamaica, the country is surveying the damage left behind by a massive Category 5 storm that made landfall on Tuesday.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Hurricane Melissa is now battering the west coast of Cuba.
FADEL: NPR's Eyder Peralta has been following the story from his base in Mexico City and joins me now. Good morning, Eyder.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: OK. So let's start with Jamaica. What do we know about the damage the storm has caused?
PERALTA: You know, the one piece of good news in all of this is that the most populous part of Jamaica - the capital, Kingston - missed the brunt of this storm.
FADEL: OK.
PERALTA: Indeed, the government says the international airport there may reopen for relief flights as early as Thursday. But Hurricane Melissa caused significant damage. More than half a million people are without power, and the government says that every single part of the country is dealing with blocked roads and downed power lines. The biggest worry is the western part of Jamaica, which was absolutely pummeled. The storm came onshore packing 185-mile-per-hour winds, and it produced a storm surge of up to 13 feet high. The minister of local government, Desmond McKenzie, said the whole of St. Elizabeth Parish was underwater.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DESMOND MCKENZIE: We have reports coming out of Black River of a number of families being trapped in their homes, and it was difficult for the rescue team to get there.
FADEL: So, Eyder, that obviously leads to the question whether these rescue teams will be able to get there today. Do you have any idea?
PERALTA: I mean, Desmond McKenzie said they are hoping and praying that they can get there today and that those people are alive. And much of the work of the government is focused on trying to clear the roads, but this is going to be a lot of work. One of the local MPs in Elizabeth Parish shared videos online, and they showed serious devastation. The town of Black River - you can see roads covered in water, and anything that was not concrete was destroyed.
(SOUNDBITE OF HORNS BLARING AND WIND BLOWING)
PERALTA: In one of those videos, we see a police station that has been flooded by a couple of feet of water. All the windows have been blown out. Outside, we see that cars have been submerged in water. Phone lines and the internet in those places are down, so it may be a while until we get a real idea of the extent of damage. Authorities, for example, say that they don't yet have any reports of deaths, though three people were killed in the run-up to the storm as they trimmed trees. It's also worth noting that several countries, including the U.S., say they are prepared to help with the relief effort.
FADEL: OK. So that is the damage in Jamaica, but this storm is still out there. Where is it now?
PERALTA: Yeah. So as it went through Jamaica, it lost a lot of steam. It emerged back out into the Caribbean. It strengthened and then it slammed into Eastern Cuba early this morning, still as a major Category 3 hurricane. Cuba has ordered hundreds of thousands to evacuate, but that island nation is especially vulnerable right now. It's going through a terrible economic crisis, and its electrical grid is often thrown offline by much smaller storms. So we expect it to have a big impact on Cuba.
FADEL: That's NPR's Eyder Peralta reporting from his base in Mexico City. Eyder, thank you.
PERALTA: Thank you, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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