Hurricane Melissa’s destruction in Jamaica seen in before-and-after satellite images

Communities across the Caribbean are reeling in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, which ripped through Jamaica, Cuba and Hispaniola, the island comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic, this week. 

While officials said that damage assessments remained underway to determine the full scope of the destruction, satellite images offered a preliminary look at some of the storm’s grave impacts on stretches of the Jamaican coastline. 

Side-by-side aerial photographs show the southwestern Jamaican fishing village of White House and the nearby town of Black River before and after Melissa slammed into the island. Each pair captures a once vibrant-looking town reduced to dirt and rubble.

Melissa struck Jamaica on Tuesday — its first landfall of multiple — as an extremely powerful Category 5 hurricane. It was the strongest storm to hit Jamaica in the island’s record-keeping history, in addition to one of the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. That was due to its winds and pressure, which are two primary markers of intensity.

The hurricane’s maximum winds had reached a formidable 185 mph when it collided with the southwestern coast of Jamaica. Although their speed dipped somewhat in the hours after landfall, Melissa’s winds remained well above the 157-mph threshold that the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale sets to determine the minimum criteria for a Category 5 storm.

At least four people died in Jamaica as a result of the storm, said Desmond McKenzie, a minister of local government, in a statement released Wednesday. McKenzie said police found their bodies washed up by flood waters and determined that all four were “by all indications, direct victims of the Hurricane.”

More than 25,000 people were still crowded in shelters on the island on Wednesday, after the storm temporarily displaced some residents and left others homeless. Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s education minister, said 77% of the island was without power the morning after the storm, while Richard Thompson, acting director-general of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management told the Nationwide News Network radio station that officials were facing challenges as they attempted to perform damage assessments, because of “a total communication blackout” in certain areas.

Outside of Jamaica, authorities have confirmed at least 23 deaths in Haiti and at least one death in the Dominican Republic as a result of the hurricane. The storm was moving away from the Bahamas on Thursday morning and headed toward Bermuda, according to the National Hurricane Center.