Jamaica was so badly battered by Hurricane Melissa that officials still have no idea how many people died, government officials grimly admitted — with just four deaths confirmed on Wednesday.
Jamaica was so badly battered by Hurricane Melissa that officials still have no idea how many people died, government officials grimly admitted — with just four deaths confirmed on Wednesday.
The island nation’s government “is not in a position to make an official statement on deaths,” Minister for Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie told reporters Wednesday.
“We have not had alerts of any deaths so far. So we cannot presume that there are deaths,” he added.
The shocking situation comes after swaths of Jamaica’s infrastructure — from roads and bridges, to power lines and basic internet connections — were destroyed when the Cat. 5 mega-storm crashed into the island with 185 mph winds Tuesday morning.
Complicating the issue is the concentration of Melissa’s landfall: the storm’s eye cut a jagged line through the heart of Jamaica’s western territory, which is more rural, remote and difficult to access even on a sunny day — let alone hours after the strongest storm in Jamaican history tore through.
