PORT-AU-PRINCE/KINGSTON/HAVANA (Reuters) -Hurricane Melissa smashed through the northern Caribbean and was seen picking up speed as it churned across open ocean towards Bermuda on Thursday, leaving a trail of high winds and destruction from Jamaica to Cuba and Haiti in its wake.
People across the Bahamas and nearby Turks and Caicos hunkered down as the passing storm pummelled them with dangerous gusts and rain. Around 700 miles (1,100 km) northeast of the storm's last position, Bermudans prepared
for its approach, expected by the evening.
Authorities across the region, struggling to keep track of the devastation, confirmed 25 deaths in Haiti - 10 of them children - and four in Jamaica.
As of 0900 GMT, Melissa was packing winds of close to 105 miles per hour (165 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), downgraded from its height to a Category 2 storm.
WADING BAREFOOT THROUGH MUD
It was expected to continue accelerating northeastward and "pass to the northwest of Bermuda" later on Thursday, before likely weakening on Friday, the Florida-based forecaster said.
Melissa struck Jamaica on Tuesday as the strongest-ever hurricane to directly hit its shores, with sustained winds of 185 mph, far above the minimum strength for a Category 5, the strongest classification for hurricanes.
In a neighbourhood of the island's Montego Bay, 77-year-old Alfred Hines waded barefoot through thick mud and debris as he described his narrow escape from the rising floodwaters.
“At one stage, I see the water at my waist and (after) about 10 minutes time, I see it around my neck here and I make my escape," he told Reuters on Wednesday.
"I just want to forget it and things come back to normal."
EVACUATIONS AND FLOODS
U.S. forecaster AccuWeather said Melissa was the Caribbean's third-most intense recorded hurricane, as well as its slowest-moving, which made it particularly destructive.
Across the Bahamas archipelago, the government flew out nearly 1,500 people as the storm approached, in what it called one of its largest evacuation operations.
The storm did not directly hit Haiti, the Caribbean's most populous nation, but lashed it with days of rain. Authorities reported at least 25 deaths, largely due to floods in Petit-Goave, a coastal town 64 km west of the capital where a river burst its banks.
At least 10 children were killed and 12 people are missing there, Haiti's disaster management agency said, adding that more than 1,000 homes have been flooded nationwide and nearly 12,000 people moved into emergency shelters.
In Cuba, at least 241 communities remained isolated and without communications on Wednesday following the storm's passage across Santiago province, according to preliminary media reports, affecting as many as 140,000 residents.
Across eastern Cuba, authorities evacuated around 735,000 people as the storm approached.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland and Brendan O'Boyle in Mexico City, Steven Aristil in Port-au-Prince, Herbert Villarraga in Les Cayes, Dave Sherwood in Havana, Zahra Burton in Kingston and Maria Alejandra Cardona in Montego Bay; Writing by Andrew Heavens, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
