Hurricane Melissa reaches Bahamas

NASSAU (Bahamas): Hurricane Melissa has reached the Bahamas, bringing destructive winds, torrential rain and a dangerous storm surge to the islands south-east of the US state of Florida, according to the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC).

The devastating storm had earlier swept over Jamaica and Cuba. With sustained winds of up to 150 kilometres per hour, Melissa is now a Category 1 hurricane. The storm’s centre is moving relatively quickly towards the north-east, forecasters said.

TRACKING MELISSA: Widespread destruction reported in Jamaica as Hurricane Melissa now heads toward the Bahamas as a Category 1 storm. pic.twitter.com/J5B0opSlum

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The Bahamian government ordered evacuations on six of the country’s more than 700 islands. Around 1,500 people were flown out of threatened areas before air traffic was suspended, according to officials.

On Tuesday, Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane — one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, according to meteorologists. More than 30 people have died across the region, most of them in Haiti due to flooding, even though the storm did not make landfall there. (ANI/WAM)