Blowing downwind: Hurricane Melissa threatens the entire Caribbean region

The Caribbean region is covered by the most powerful hurricane Melissa. There are already victims and injured people. According to human rights activists, the cataclysm will affect about 1.5 million people. Wind gusts can reach 280 km/h, and for Jamaica, a natural disaster will be the most devastating for the country in the last 100 years. The hurricane also threatens Cuba, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. In the Dominican Republic, where Melissa arrived last week, more than 3.7 thousand people were forced to leave their homes, 753 residential buildings were destroyed, and 520 thousand citizens were left without water, the Russian embassy told Izvestia. They noted that there were no casualties among their fellow citizens. How the situation in the region will affect tourism is in the Izvestia article.

The Melissa is heading towards Jamaica.

About 1.5 million people, according to estimates by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), may be affected by the effects of the powerful hurricane Melissa. It has been rapidly covering the Caribbean in recent days. It is highly likely that residents of the region's countries will face large-scale flooding and destruction and will be forced to leave their homes.

Meteorologists report that the hurricane is now moving towards Jamaica, with wind speeds reaching 280 km/h at the epicenter. Melissa has already been assigned the fifth, highest category on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Experts predict that the hurricane will be the most destructive for the island in the last century.

There are already at least three dead and 13 injured in the country. By the evening of October 27 alone, 1,700 residents of coastal areas had been evacuated, with a total of 50,000 people to be resettled. For this purpose, the country has already opened more than 800 shelters in different regions. At the same time, most of the locals, according to foreign journalists, refuse to leave their homes because of negative past experiences, as well as because of the large number of videos generated using artificial intelligence, which downplay the threat of a hurricane. It is expected that the most powerful wind gusts of up to 137 km/h and heavy rains will last in the capital, Kingston, until three o'clock in the morning on October 29, Moscow time.

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Shopping malls, casinos and universities were closed in several megacities, but the disaster did not affect the interest of tourists in the region.

Three deaths have already been recorded in Haiti. The hurricane will affect the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, as well as the eastern part of Cuba. The city of Santiago de Cuba will have maximum wind gusts of up to 193 km/h by 6:00 Moscow time on October 29. An evacuation has already been announced there. In particular, about 1,000 soldiers, employees and their relatives left the American Guantanamo military base. By the way, the American press claims that the hurricane could disrupt the States' plans to combat drug cartels in the Caribbean. Instead, the military is likely to have to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the region.

Damage from Hurricane Melissa

The Dominican Republic is already struggling with the consequences. She was the first to encounter Melissa last week. There is at least one dead and one missing person in the country. Local media reported that a 79-year-old man with disabilities was swept away by the current in Santo Domingo, and was later found dead. A 13-year-old teenager found himself in the same situation in the capital, his body has never been found.

The Dominican Ministry of Agriculture reports severe damage. Heavy rains and winds have led to losses estimated at at least 1.6 billion rubles. However, preventive measures, according to officials, have made it possible to meet the demand for agricultural products during bad weather.

After five days of torrential rains, the Dominican Republic is returning to normal, the Russian embassy told Izvestia.

— By the decision of the national emergency Operations Headquarters, the red danger level was lifted, the activities of all public and private institutions, enterprises, as well as the educational process were resumed, with the exception of four southwestern provinces. In total, according to the headquarters, more than 3.7 thousand people were evacuated to safe zones, 753 residential buildings were damaged as a result of the disaster, 48 settlements were isolated due to washed-out roads, 520 thousand people were deprived of water supply, 46 relevant infrastructure facilities were damaged due to heavy rains, the Russian diplomatic mission reported.

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The embassy stressed that the Dominican authorities continue to closely monitor the situation, given the low mobility of the cyclone and the possibility of changing its trajectory. Diplomats confirmed that there were no casualties among Russian citizens.

But risks cannot be excluded for Russian tourists, among whom the Caribbean destination is in high demand.

— First of all, it is the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba. In such situations related to hurricanes, the damage to tourism is expressed in the fact that airports are closed and the flight program is disrupted. Tourists are forced to wait for flights. But we understand that this is a natural phenomenon of irreversible force," says the PCT expert, head of the international projects "Fly.<url>" and Lyubov Voronina, Managing Director of the Let's Fly tour operator.

With the start of the special operation in Ukraine and the suspension of direct flights, the Russian tourist flow to the Dominican Republic has already significantly decreased. From January to October last year, only 18 thousand of our citizens visited the Caribbean state. Before the termination of direct flights, more than 91,000 Russians traveled to the country in January and February 2022 alone. The resumption of flights between Russia and the Dominican Republic is expected in the near future, but powerful natural phenomena may make this direction less attractive.