Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Hurricane Melissa makes landfall on Jamaica, causing chaos

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Hurricane Melissa makes landfall on Jamaica, causing chaos · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Jamaica has begun to feel the force of Hurricane Melissa,
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  Speaker 1: the most powerful storm in the country's history, has now
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  Speaker 1: made landfall. Authorities are telling people to shelter in place,
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  Speaker 1: after thousands were ordered earlier to evacuate their homes. The
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  Speaker 1: Red Cross is warning that a million and a half
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  Speaker 1: people could be affected, more than half the country's population.
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  Speaker 1: With winds up to almost three hundred kilometers an hour,
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  Speaker 1: Melissa's expected to bring catastrophic flooding and landslides as it
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  Speaker 1: moves north across the island. Jamaica's Prime Minister says there
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  Speaker 1: is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a
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  Speaker 1: storm of this strength. Natricia Duncan is the Caribbean correspondent
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  Speaker 1: for The Guardian newspaper, speaking from the Jamaican capital, Kingston.
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  Speaker 1: She told me what it's been like waiting for Melissa
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  Speaker 1: to hit.
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  Speaker 2: It has been a long unnerve in wait and as
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  Speaker 2: you could imagine, the tensions, the terrorI is building as
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  Speaker 2: these really terrifying this are coming in hard and fast.
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  Speaker 2: Last night it was it was challenging, lots of songs, winds, rain,
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  Speaker 2: It was difficult for me personally to sleep because of
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  Speaker 2: those those songs and the concerns about my safety and
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  Speaker 2: you know, my my accommodation being compromised, and of course
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  Speaker 2: across the island we had situations where there was already
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  Speaker 2: flooding in the morning. We saw some some really heavy
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  Speaker 2: flooding in some in some areas, we saw trees being
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  Speaker 2: blown down. Currently, you know, hundreds of thousands of people
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  Speaker 2: are without power. I have also lost power in Kingston,
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  Speaker 2: but my building has a backup generator, so before it
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  Speaker 2: even landed, we were seeing some of those worst case
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  Speaker 2: scenarios that were being predicted, which is quite worrying.
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  Speaker 1: And you haven't a sort shelter. Is that because you
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  Speaker 1: are much further inland.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so where I'm I'm currently based in Kingston, I
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  Speaker 2: am in a in a fairly good position because one
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  Speaker 2: the storm is quite a distance away from me. It's
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  Speaker 2: going diagonally through Jamaica. But I'm still Kingston has been
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  Speaker 2: spared the worst of what will happen with the worst
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  Speaker 2: affected areas. We're talking about places like Saint Elizabeth, which
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  Speaker 2: is quite worrying because just last year during the summer,
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  Speaker 2: during Hurricane Beryl, this was one of the areas that
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  Speaker 2: was most you know, devastated and and most you know,
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  Speaker 2: had really border brunt of Hurricane Burial, and we had
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  Speaker 2: people in that era who were just rebuilding. People are
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  Speaker 2: telling us we just finished our our fixing our house.
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  Speaker 2: We're just now coming to terms the trauma of Burial,
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  Speaker 2: and now we have Melissa Burian nom on us and
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  Speaker 2: hitting us in possible way.
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  Speaker 1: And as you say, so it seems to be one
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  Speaker 1: thing after another, and I'm reading that officials are concerned
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  Speaker 1: that not enough people have sought shelter. And you can
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  Speaker 1: sort of understand if they're sort of being battered from
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  Speaker 1: one disaster to the next, why people might just say, no,
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  Speaker 1: I've had enough, I'm stopping here.
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  Speaker 3: What are you hearing about? Why people are so reluctant.
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  Speaker 2: So we spoke to people in Port Royal, which is
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  Speaker 2: one of the most vulnerable communities exposed. In fact, it
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  Speaker 2: used to be a massive Caribbean city and until there
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  Speaker 2: was an earthquake in the sixteen hundreds which completely devastated
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  Speaker 2: it and most of it and now it's just a
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  Speaker 2: small fishing village. And people there were saying, we have
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  Speaker 2: experienced with hurricanes. We've been through Gilbert, We've been through Burial.
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  Speaker 2: On what to do. We can take care of ourselves,
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  Speaker 2: and they were also saying when we go to shelters,
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  Speaker 2: you know, in the past, we have had problems with
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  Speaker 2: our belongings being stolen, We've had problems with women being
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  Speaker 2: at risk, and so they're saying that we feel confident
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  Speaker 2: and that the best thing to do is to stay put.
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  Speaker 2: But this is unprecedented. This is a dangerous storm, and
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  Speaker 2: so you know, the government then had to enforce mandatory
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  Speaker 2: evacuation in order to get those people to safety.
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  Speaker 1: All right, thank you so much for talking us through that, Natresia,
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  Speaker 1: do stay safe. Nastrasia Duncan in Kingston, Jamaica.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Let's get more on this from Professor Liz Bentley, who's
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  Speaker 1: President of the European Meteorological Society and Chief executive of
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  Speaker 1: Britain's Royal Meteorological Society.
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  Speaker 3: Welcome to the w Liz, Jamaica.
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  Speaker 1: Of course no stranger to hurricanes, So how unusual is Melissa.
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  Speaker 4: This is the most powerful storm that will have made
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  Speaker 4: landfall in Jamaica. It's the most powerful storm that we've
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  Speaker 4: seen this year in the hurricane season of twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 4: and we mentioned a few hurricanes that have hit Jamaica recently.
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  Speaker 4: This is much more extreme than those. This is a
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  Speaker 4: category five. It's the highest category of hurricanes that we classify,
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  Speaker 4: and it's really a combination of intense wind speeds, so
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  Speaker 4: sustained wind speeds of one hundred and seventy five miles
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  Speaker 4: per hour and gifts over two hundred miles per hour,
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  Speaker 4: but then a combination of heavy rain. So this is
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  Speaker 4: a slow moving system that over the course of the
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  Speaker 4: next twenty four to thirty six hours, will put down
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  Speaker 4: about a meter of rainfall, particularly over the higher ground,
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  Speaker 4: and then that will flow down into the towns and
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  Speaker 4: villages into Kingston itself. So it's the impact of sustained winds,
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  Speaker 4: exceptionally strong winds, unprecedented wind speeds for Jamaica, and then
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  Speaker 4: that heavy rainfall as well, leading to flooding.
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  Speaker 1: We were hearing yesterday of sea temperatures of thirty degrees
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  Speaker 1: celsius plus.
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  Speaker 3: How much is that driving this storm's power?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, a really big factor. So typically temperatures need to
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  Speaker 4: be above twenty seven degrees for hurricanes to really get developed.
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  Speaker 4: So when they get to thirty degrees, there's much more
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  Speaker 4: heat and energy that can be put into these systems.
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  Speaker 4: And the hurricane itself has been sat to the south
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  Speaker 4: of Jamaica for a couple of days. Now as it's
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  Speaker 4: turned its direction, it was moving from east to west.
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  Speaker 4: Now it's heading back up to the northeast, going to
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  Speaker 4: make direct landfall in Jamaica. And while it's been sat
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  Speaker 4: over that warm otion, it's obviously picked up the heat
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  Speaker 4: and extra energy, but it's picking up more moisture, so
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  Speaker 4: there's more rainfall falling from the system as well, and
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  Speaker 4: very slow moving. The system itself is only moving about
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  Speaker 4: two miles per hour, so it's going to persist both
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  Speaker 4: strong winds and heavy rain for a long period of
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  Speaker 4: time across Jamaica.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so these a CATEGORYVE storm in a region that
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  Speaker 1: is used to hurricanes. So how much do we look
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  Speaker 1: at this and say, well, this is what you expect
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  Speaker 1: in this region. And how much do you look at
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  Speaker 1: that and say, well, this is global warming.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we're in the hurricane season, and as you say,
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  Speaker 4: this part of the world is not immune to getting hurricanes,
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  Speaker 4: and with climate change, with those warmer sea temperatures that
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  Speaker 4: we've just mentioned, which is a clear signal of climate change,
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  Speaker 4: that just puts more energy into these systems. So climate
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  Speaker 4: change isn't leading to more hurricanes, but what it is
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  Speaker 4: doing is when we get these hurricanes, they tend to
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  Speaker 4: be more intense. So this year alone, we've had three
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  Speaker 4: category five hurricanes in this hurricane season, and if I
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  Speaker 4: put that into context, over the last one hundred years,
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  Speaker 4: we've probably had about forty five category five hurricanes over
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  Speaker 4: that one hundred year period. We've had three so.
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  Speaker 3: Far this year.
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  Speaker 1: Right, And as far as you can tell, authorities in
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  Speaker 1: the Caribbean in gim been taking the threat from climate
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  Speaker 1: warning and warning seriously. Is the island now better prepared?
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  Speaker 3: So?
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  Speaker 4: I think the warnings have been much more clearer and
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  Speaker 4: in avance. So we've known this system was likely to
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  Speaker 4: affect Jamaica for a few days now, so they've been
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  Speaker 4: able to prepare for this. So the warnings have definitely improved.
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  Speaker 4: Whether they're more resilient to these storms, it really you know,
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  Speaker 4: it's going to be a challenge to see whether there's
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  Speaker 4: been significant change to be able to cope with this.
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  Speaker 4: But with those warnings, those early warnings in place, and
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  Speaker 4: that mandraty warning for people to move to safe areas
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  Speaker 4: and hopeful then that there'll be less of an impact
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  Speaker 4: on life there, but certainly an impact of businesses and
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  Speaker 4: communities with the strong winds and the heavy rainfall.
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  Speaker 1: Good talking to you as ever, Professor and Liz Bentley
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  Speaker 1: from the Royal Meteorological Society.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 1: H