Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Jamaicans reveal devastation as hurricane causes floods and power cuts

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Jamaicans reveal devastation as hurricane causes floods and power cuts · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: To Jamaica because the authorities say more than three quarters
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  Speaker 1: of the country is where electricity and much of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: phone network is down after Hurricane Melissa swept across the island.
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  Speaker 1: Jamaica's Local Government Minister, Desmond McKenzie wouldn't give any details
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  Speaker 1: on the number of people who may have died, but
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  Speaker 1: Haiti has said the number of deaths there has risen
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  Speaker 1: to around twenty. In Cuba, thousands of people remain in
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  Speaker 1: shelters having been evacuated from their homes. Let me show
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  Speaker 1: the live satellite imagery showing the current path of the hurricane,
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  Speaker 1: which has now moved on to Cuba in the last
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  Speaker 1: hour as well. The UK government has said it is
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  Speaker 1: putting together a two and a half million pound emergency
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  Speaker 1: humanitarian funding package to support the Caribbean's recovery.
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: Here's Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management speaking
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  Speaker 1: just a short while ago.
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  Speaker 3: Critical service entities have no one will be advised to
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  Speaker 3: mobilize immediately at to restore electricity, water and communication networks.
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  Speaker 3: We're also asking and encouraging entities like our supermarkets or
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  Speaker 3: wholesales or gas stations and pharmacies particularly in those areas
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  Speaker 3: that have been less affected. We are asking you to
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  Speaker 3: open and allow communities to have access to these essential
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  Speaker 3: goods and services.
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  Speaker 1: Well that's the update. In the last hours the storm
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  Speaker 1: crossed Jamaica, Thousands spent the night in shelters. Warnings of
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  Speaker 1: flash flooding and landslides are still in place on the island.
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  Speaker 1: Jessica Lane has some of the latest detail.
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  Speaker 4: As daybreak across Jamaica this morning. The devastation and destruction
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  Speaker 4: left behind from Hurricane Melissa was laid bare. People here
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  Speaker 4: say whole areas of the country are destroyed.
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  Speaker 5: Where I'm from looking outside, it's absolutely devastating. Where I
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  Speaker 5: am the neighboring communities I bought more INSTEADI hereton Loadasville.
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  Speaker 5: These communities absolutely devastating. So the clean up for Disla
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  Speaker 5: is going to be absolutely huge.
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  Speaker 4: The strongest hurricane to hit the island in modern history,
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  Speaker 4: Melissa was Category five.
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  Speaker 6: It tells us that she had winds of over one
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  Speaker 6: hundred and fifty seven months per hour. In fact, what
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  Speaker 6: was recorded was about one hundred and eighty five months
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  Speaker 6: per hour. So we think about her strength as a storm,
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  Speaker 6: we think about her duration. Melissa at some points in
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  Speaker 6: her track was moving out one to two kilometers per hour. Thankfully,
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  Speaker 6: when she was passing over Jamaica, she went as has
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  Speaker 6: fifteen kilometers per hour and she was significant in terms
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  Speaker 6: of the impact that she has caused.
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  Speaker 4: One half of Montegue Bay in the northeast of the
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  Speaker 4: island has been cut off from the other half by
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  Speaker 4: floodwaters brought about as a result of the hurricane.
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  Speaker 2: We can't protect the Alan. What we can do is
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  Speaker 2: still prepare our serves as best as possible to respond
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  Speaker 2: to it as a small Alan developed instead. These things
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  Speaker 2: are existent, have threat to us. We expect these things
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  Speaker 2: to happen from from time to time, so we have to,
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  Speaker 2: you know, adapt to it and know how to respond.
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  Speaker 4: Even though Hurricane Melissa has left Jamaica, a tropical storm
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  Speaker 4: warning remains in place, as well as fears over the
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  Speaker 4: humanitarian crisis now about to develop as people's homes and
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  Speaker 4: livelihoods have been destroyed. Thousands of British tourists are thought
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  Speaker 4: to have been stranded in Jamaica. Many try to stay
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  Speaker 4: safe in their hotels as they were worn to remain
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  Speaker 4: inside to shelter from the hugely damaging winds.
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  Speaker 7: It was like being like in a walls on it was.
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  Speaker 7: It was horrible, feel like that the building was just
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  Speaker 7: getting ready to take off. It was just shake in
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  Speaker 7: all the windows were checking. Things would get thrown at us.
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  Speaker 7: I would walk up this morning and come onto the
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  Speaker 7: balcony and there's just loads of debris on the falcon ins.
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  Speaker 7: Just trees everywhere, ropen and tails everywhere. It's just don't recognizable.
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  Speaker 4: Hurricane Melissa had started to weaken as it moved northeastwards
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  Speaker 4: across Jamaica, but once it cleared the island overnight, the
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  Speaker 4: warm waters allowed it to re intensify. It hit Cuba
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  Speaker 4: this morning, having weakened to a Category three storm, still
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  Speaker 4: with intense wind speeds of up to one hundred and
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  Speaker 4: twenty miles per hour. People here try to make sure
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  Speaker 4: all members of their families were taken to safety, but
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  Speaker 4: they're worried.
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  Speaker 2: It kills me.
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  Speaker 3: But what kills me even more is being away from
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  Speaker 3: home and having everything at own taken away, like Hurricanes
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  Speaker 3: Sendy in twenty and twelve.
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  Speaker 4: Hurricane Melissa is expected to travel northeastwards, crossing the Bahamas
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  Speaker 4: later today, then heading towards Bermuda tomorrow. As people in
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  Speaker 4: the Caribbean and friends, families and loved ones here wait
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  Speaker 4: and watch to see how bad the damage will be.
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  Speaker 4: Jessica Oline, BBC News