Hello, Tragedy has struck the Caribbean this week as Hurricane Melissa caused devastation in Jamaica with life-threatening storm surges, flash floods and landslides on Cuba's eastern end before barrelling towards Haiti and Bermuda. The strongest storm on record ever to hit the Caribbean island nation blasted western Jamaica, demolishing homes, knocking down swaths of trees and washing out roadways. Click here to keep up with the live updates of the storm. The storm has killed at least 25 people in Haiti and four in Jamaica. Eyewitness reports and videos on social media from Jamaica showed vehicles destroyed by flying debris, hotel doors blown off hinges and roofs scattered across neighborhoods. Video of the airport in Montego Bay showed inundated seating areas, broken glass and collapsed ceilings. In eastern Cuba, around 735,000 people were evacuated from homes as the storm approached, authorities said. By mid-morning, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Cuba had already suffered extensive damage and warned residents against letting down their guard, urging them to remain sheltered. People across the Bahamas and nearby Turks and Caicos hunkered down as the passing storm pummelled them with dangerous gusts and rain. Also on my radar today: |
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Drone view of flooding after Hurricane Melissa made landfall in St Elizabeth, Jamaica. REUTERS/Maria Alejandra Cardona |
How and why did this happen? |
The Category 4 storm, just one away from the strongest possible on the Saffir-Simpson scale, brought sustained winds of 130-156 mph (209-251 kph). The risk of death or injury is still considered very high under a Category 4 storm. Melissa is the third-most intense hurricane observed in the Caribbean after Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988, according to AccuWeather. Scientists say hurricanes are intensifying faster with greater frequency as a result of warming ocean waters caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Many Caribbean leaders have called on wealthy, heavy-polluting nations to provide reparations in the form of aid or debt relief to tropical island countries. |
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"Our country has been ravaged by Hurricane Melissa but we will rebuild and we will do so even better than before," Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. Holness said his government was as prepared as it could be, with an emergency response budget of $33 million and insurance and credit provisions for damage a little larger than that sustained from last year's devastating Hurricane Beryl. Britain said it was deploying 2.5 million pounds ($3.36 million) in emergency humanitarian funding to assist the Caribbean region's recovery from Hurricane Melissa, with targeted support for Jamaica. Britain's colonial rule in Jamaica between 1655–1962 rested on slavery and plantation wealth, and lingering land inequities and reparations claims continue to strain relations. Some members of the U.S. Congress called for the State Department to swiftly deploy disaster relief assistance. The United States has traditionally been a big donor to Caribbean nations in emergencies, but the Trump administration has upended U.S. foreign aid policies. Hurricane Melissa could have deep economic impacts, in part because of Jamaica's reliance on tourism. Jamaica is the Caribbean's second-most visited destination after the Dominican Republic. Tourism is critical to the economy, bringing in $4.3 billion in earnings last year, according to the country's tourism ministry. The sector also delivers over 300,000 jobs, with around 40% of earnings from tourism staying in Jamaica, twice the Caribbean average according to a widely quoted U.N. World Tourism Organization report. Jamaica's government launched an official website to collect funds for the island's disaster relief, the country's information minister Dana Morris Dixon said. She also warned people to beware of scammers and only donate to the official government website. |
The grandmother of Ikram Abdelhameed looks on while sitting at a camp for displaced people who fled from al-Fashir to Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan. REUTERS/Mohammed Jamal |
- Sudan aid worker deaths: Five volunteers from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) were killed in Sudan and three others are missing. The three were killed on October 27 in the city of Bara in the central state of North Kordofan while distributing food and wearing official vests, the charity said. It did not give details on how they were killed or assign responsibility.
- India cyclone: One person was killed on India's eastern coast after Cyclone Montha made landfall around midnight, with heavy rain and gusty winds also damaging crops and utility poles, officials said. The government has reported damage to more than 38,000 hectares of crops, several power lines and utility poles in Andhra Pradesh. Efforts were underway to restore power in areas where there had been outages.
- Global job cuts: Companies around the globe have ramped up job cuts, according to a Reuters tally. American companies have announced more than 25,000 job cuts this month, not including UPS's 48,000 figure, which dates from the beginning of 2025, Amazon said it would cut up to 14,000 jobs from its corporate workforce while Target, Procter & Gamble and others are axing thousands of office roles. In Europe, the total tops 20,000, with Nestlé accounting for the bulk after last week's 16,000-role reduction. The reasons for the cuts vary. Click here for the full Reuters article.
- SNAP benefits delay: As Democrats and Republicans in Congress continue to blame each other for a weeks-long legislative stalemate, neither party was showing signs of changing its position days before funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, is set to lapse beginning on Saturday, affecting nearly 42 million people in America.
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A customer buys lunch from furloughed federal worker Issac Stein at his hot dog stand during the U.S. government shutdown, in Washington, D.C., U.S. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz |
What happens when a tax lawyer finds himself furloughed during the government shutdown? Well, Isaac Stein turned to his passion. Before the government shutdown, Stein made his living as an attorney for the Internal Revenue Service, working mostly on his own, writing retirement plan regulations in a Washington office building. But his furlough gave him more time for what he describes as "a joyous art project." What started as a "fun weekend project" turned to busy afternoons on the streets of the nation's capital selling hot dogs, Moon Pies and RC Cola from a cart he has named "SHYSTERS." The name – based on a term used to describe unscrupulous lawyers – is meant to be ironic, and part of the joke. "It's my first attempt at performance art," he mused. |
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Sustainable Switch was edited by Jane Merriman. |
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