Hurricane Melissa leaves unimaginable human suffering behind as Jamaica struggles to recover

SAINT ELIZABETH PARISH, Jamaica – Three days after Hurricane Melissa tore through the western half of Jamaica, stories continue to emerge of the widespread suffering left behind in the storm’s wake.

On Oct. 27 at roughly 1 p.m., Hurricane Melissa made landfall near New Hope, Jamaica packing devastating winds of 185 mph, a major Category 5 storm that is one of the strongest hurricanes to ever make landfall. 

FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray continues his coverage of Hurricane Melissa, back outside today to document and assess the damage left behind by the storm.

Melissa proceeded to carve a path of destruction and several days later the extent of damage caused by the deadly storm is being uncovered. 

So far, at least 48 deaths have been reported throughout Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. 

At least 19 deaths have been accounted for in Jamaica as of late Friday morning, but communication remains sporadic and difficult.

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In Haiti, the mayor of Petit-Grove in southern Haiti said over two dozen people were killed after a flooded river overflowed its banks and sent water rushing into communities. 

FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray and his team, meteorologist Jarrod Moloney and photojournalist Peter Stolz, rode out the monstrous category 5 storm just east of Montego Bay, and in the days since have traveled across the most affected areas of the Caribbean island after Hurricane Melissa tore across western Jamaica. 

“I have never seen a disaster like this in my life,” Ray said, who has covered such other disasters as Hurricanes Katrina and Helene, and the Mayfield, Kentucky tornado. “One community after the next is in total ruin.”

DRONE VIDEO REVEALS CATASTROPHIC DEVASTATION IN JAMAICA

In Saint Elizabeth Parish, on the southwestern part of the island just east of where the monster storm came ashore, families scattered debris around their destroyed homes and belongings.

TOPSHOT – Electrical poles are down as a man bikes through the destroyed neighborood of North Street following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, in Black River, Jamaica on October 29, 2025. (Photo by RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

One mother Ray interviewed said her five children are headed to a shelter after their home was destroyed and all of their belongings lost. 

One displaced Jamaican told Ray, “It was rough. House gone, food gone, clothes gone, everything gone.”

Ray said as they were going through this part of the neighborhood, people were screaming for help and water.

BEFORE AND AFTER SATELLITE IMAGERY REVEALS EXTEND OF DAMAGE IN JAMAICA

“We gave them everything they had,” he said.

His team made its way farther inland, chronicling the destruction in the towns of Santa Cruz, Middle Quarters and Holland Bamboo.

Watch: Drone footage shows extensive damage in Holland Bamboo, Jamaica, caused by the historic Hurricane Melissa. This horrific storm made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm leaving a trail of devastation.

“It was the longest 7-hour disaster movie of my life,” one resident told Maloney. Another said, “This was three times (as bad as) Gilbert.”

Drone video from above the towns of Middle Quarters and Holland Bamboo showed miles of flattened homes and landscape stripped bare, with acres of palm trees knocked over like bowling pins.

“Water rushed through the town, now it’s a mud disaster with roofs torn off, structures in shambles, and rock slides in the area,” Ray said.

Complete destruction near landfall in Black River

The FOX Weather team in Jamaica made their way to Black River on Friday, a town forever changed by Hurricane Melissa.

Sitting merely 12 miles from where the historic hurricane made landfall, when Ray and company arrived in Black River, they were met with a definitive disaster. Bustling streets transformed into mountains of rubble overnight, as local officials, police, and residents gathered together as the first waves of recovery began.

Black River sits roughly 12 miles from where Hurricane Melissa made landfall as one of the strongest Category 5 hurricanes on record. Days later, FOX Weather Field Correspondent Robert Ray talks with local officials and police coordinating the cleanup amid Hurricane Melissa’s deadly disaster and the desperate need for assistance in destroyed areas of Jamaica. Local elected officials, police officers and residents talk with Ray about the road to recovery from the deadly disaster. 

On the front lines in Black River just days after the arrival of the catastrophic hurricane, locals are struggling to cope with the scale of devastation that ravaged the coastal town, although mayor of Black River Richard Solomon said, “Hope is not lost.” 

Local officials called Black River ground zero for Hurricane Melissa. 

“The entire town is beyond recognition,” said one local.

An interview with several members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force was interrupted by a gut-wrenching shriek from a resident, wailing in agony and traumatized by the path of destruction carved through Black River. In addition to search and rescue teams and first responders leading clean-up efforts, chaplains and the JCF welfare division were in Black River providing emotional support to all affected by the extreme devastation.

One Jamaican on the ground in Black River said, “If it looks bad on television, it’s 10 times worse in person. Any form of help out there on the road to recovery is welcome.”

Roads remain damaged and nearly impassable

FOX Weather’s Robert Ray and his crew detail the hours-long journey through debris, floodwaters and widespread destruction as they try to return to Kingston from some of the hardest-hit towns leveled by Hurricane Melissa.

Ray spent Wednesday night documenting their harrowing drive back from Santa Cruz toward their home base hours away in Kingston. Lines of cars and emergency vehicles struggled to navigate roads that are now strewn with debris and rocks; many still flooded.

“We are trying to get out of the most impacted zone in southwestern Jamaica right now,” Ray said as he slowly drove his way through the chaotic scene. “The road in in daylight was the most difficult terrain that I have ever experienced. To try and get into an impact zone. The wind field and the mix of water has created a disaster like no other.”

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The journey was interrupted several times to make way for passing ambulances and other emergency vehicles, and for crews to clear roadways and two-way traffic to narrowly squeeze through gaps in debris barely enough for one vehicle to pass.

They arrived safely in Kingston in the wee hours of the morning, barely having enough gas to make it. The rest was short, they hit the road again a few hours later to return to the disaster zones.

Montego Bay faces destruction of winds, storm surge

Drone video from FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray shows extensive flooding at the Montego Bay stadium and the Catherine Hall neighborhood after Hurricane Melissa’s Category 5 impacts.

The scenes were no better on the northern side of the island where Melissa exited about four hours later.

Montego Bay and its surrounding communities took a direct hit from likely 100+ mph winds and multiple feet of storm surge.

Drone video there showed a soccer stadium in town covered in water and mud — a scene common throughout the surrounding Catherine Hall neighborhoods. Storm surge buried the town in water and mud that was feet deep, pushed in off the beaches from the 100+ mph winds.

The bulk of the seawater has since retreated into the Caribbean, but a thick, grimy film of muddy water remains clinging to roads, yards and even the lower floors of many homes — many also sustaining substantial wind damage.

A resident points to where the high water mark was at his home during Hurricane Melissa.

(FOX Weather)

On the ground, Ray was escorted around the Catherine Hall neighborhood as residents trying to come to grips with the destruction were eager to show the world the enormous amount of help that’s needed.

Ray walked down a mud-filled side road to find homes still under several inches of mud and water, if not more.

“We need help! We need help, please, to clear our roads,” one woman exasperatedly pleaded. She walked in her front door to show the puddles of mud still shin-deep in her entryway. 

HURRICANE MELISSA’S POWERFUL WINDS RATTLE LIVE CAMERA BEFORE LANDFALL

In another nearby home, a resident pointed out a dark horizontal line about 6-7 feet off the ground, left as a scar on their brightly colored teal blue wall.

“That’s where the water was,” the resident exclaimed.

Jamaica is now suffering a humanitarian disaster after Hurricane Melissa destroyed homes, businesses and critical infrastructure throughout the country. FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray reports from St. James Parish.

Another woman told Ray she rescued three children who were tossed over a wall to her during the storm.

“The water was rising and (the parents) wanted to stay in the flood,” she said. “I took the kids; they’re at my house now, I don’t know where the parents are.”  She said the kids are OK.

Another woman brought Ray into her home, filled with mud and water-soaked furniture tossed about the room.

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“(Damage to) washing machines, freezers; we lost all our meat,” the woman told Ray. “We have no food and water. That’s one of the biggest things — if we can get some food and water right now, because we don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t have running water, it’s crazy.”

On Thursday, some 48 hours after Melissa had torn apart multiple communities, Ray expressed frustration at the lack of aid that had yet reached many of these hard-hit towns.

FOX Weather’s Robert Ray takes us on a surreal tour of the home he and his crew rented to ride out Hurricane Melisa in Saint Ann Parish in Jamaica. All of the glass windows and doors shattered, and part of a porch collapsed.

“This is about humanity here. This is about life and death there,” an emotional Ray said as he stood next to ruins in St. Elizabeth Parish.  “Somebody get it together. There are ways to land helicopters and airplanes and on these airstrips right now. There are ways to get large military vehicles into these areas. We made our way; in took time, and it was a lot of work, and it was not easy, and we did it with literally hundreds of people who live here who were trying to do the same. So come on down and let’s start helping these Jamaicans… Get here now, because if you don’t, people are going to die.”

Offers for aid have been coming in from across the region, including the U.S.

In a post on X early Wednesday morning, the Department of State said it would deploy a regional Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) and activate U.S.-based Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams to help with recovery efforts.

The U.S. Embassy in Jamaica also released a statement and said that Pres. Donald Trump had authorized the “immediate U.S. response.”

Jamaican officials announced Friday that Montego Bay’s airport had already reopened to relief flights and would reopen for commercial flights on Saturday morning. 

“If it looks bad on television, it’s 10 times worse if you see it in person,” said Andrae Tomlinson who has been helping provide security to Ray’s crew in Jamaica. “Any help out there on the road to recovery is welcome.”