Hurricane Melissa Hits Home for Jamaicans in Iowa City

Hurricane Melissa hits home for Jamaicans in Iowa City

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica last week as a Category 5 storm, flattening homes and cutting off power to hundreds of thousands of citizens. In Iowa City, the destruction left residents with ties to the island anxiously awaiting updates and searching for ways to help. Hurricane Melissa was one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, according to the Associated Press. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, wiped out…

‘HORRIFIC’: Jamaica UNRECOGNIZABLE a week after Hurricane Melissa

On October 28, Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm ever to strike Jamaica as a Category 5, made landfall near Montego Bay, unleashing catastrophic damage across the island as winds peaked at 185 mph. The storm demolished thousands of homes, left entire communities without power or running water, and triggered widespread flooding. Drone footage reveals apocalyptic scenes of uprooted trees and flattened neighborhoods. The death toll sits at 28 …

Using Technology to Measure Power Outages, Critical Infrastructure Damage After Hurricane Melissa

Hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans have been left in the dark for a week following Hurricane Melissa. The historic Category Five hurricane made landfall in late October, devastating much of the western parishes in the country. Crisis Ready, a research-response initiative at Harvard and Direct Relief, gathered recent data that predicts that between 600,000 and 700,000 residents are without power after catastrophic winds of 175 miles per hour impa…