The death toll from Hurricane Melissa’s passage through Haiti has risen to over 20 deaths. The local newspaper Le Nouvelliste reports this, citing statements from the director of Civil Protection, Emmanuel Pierre. «The provisional toll has risen to 20 dead, 10 missing and extensive material damage. The searches continue,” said Pierre.
The victims, the authorities specify, were caused by the flooding caused by the overflowing of the La Digue river in the town of Petit Goave, in the Department of the West.
The hurricane, which has fallen to category 3, is now targeting the Bahamas where the impact is expected today with wind gusts of up to 170 km/h. In Cuba, authorities ordered the evacuation of at least 735,000 in the eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Guantánamo, where schools, businesses and government offices were ordered closed. “The night was very complex,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote today on social media, urging Cubans “to stay at home.”
According to the latest bulletin from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), the hurricane has dropped to category 3 and is now targeting the Bahamas. “Melissa continues to move over eastern Cuba and will soon emerge into the Southwest Atlantic bringing damaging winds, rain, flooding and dangerous storm surge to Cuba and the Bahamas.”