Hurricane Harbor: Melissa & Cuba. After the Storm For Jamaica Very Hard... Damage, Deathtoll Climbs & Much Destruction. Melissa Bahama Bound Next

Still going strong I see...

Where is Melissa now?

Where and when is she going....

Experimental Cone good for that.

Florida got very lucky.

Very.....

The cold front that is protecting the US

As clear to see as Melissa.

Still sucking up moisture from below.

Keeping her going on her journey.

I went out today and took a break from being online, from social media and basically from Melissa. Sometimes we need to clear our head. Had a Pecan Cortada from Starbucks and sipped my way through the Mall that's already decorated for the holidays which make me happy. Stared at my reflection in a big ornament on a tree nearby. I felt like a child almost. We all need to take breaks sometimes for our own mental health. Waiting for reports and video and realizing Melissa was still battering Cuba before moving on to the Bahamas. The death toll with be high when you add in the deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic early on before the Cat 5 landfall in Jamaica. The injured who need help is enormous and doesn't make the news. Homeless people whose homes were destroyed need help. The beautiful paradise island will need help and I am sure help is coming as many faith based groups are already on their way and I believe the Cajun Navy went down to ride out the storm and be on the ground immediately to survey what would be needed the most. If you know of a charity that you are familiar with that is reliable, please donate what you can...even small amounts added up collectively make a difference.

2 PM Info on Melissa!

Melissa definitely a long tracker.

Short term track above.

Melissa did a deadly, destructive horrific job on Jamaica. Horrible destruction and debris littered everywhere at landfall. Lots of small towns and villages up in the mountains, it will take time to hear from and get the full picture of what went on there. The airport looks like one of those "Abandoned Jamaica" sites on Instagram. Empty chairs, ceiling tiles down, water pouring through and very trashed in many ways.

The power grid there is down. Info is slow to come and facts are few and far between, though throughout the day today more news will come out. Amazingly very fake AI pics were passed around immediately (think before you repost) and sad to not be able to trust the flow of images and vidoes (some from Beryl) being shown.

2nd largest city in Cuba was hit by Melissa as a Category 4. Hard to get real news or stories from Cuba though they tend to come out later in various ways. Sandy hit this same region and it was devastating. Melissa was strong.

What will be in the Bahamas, who knows...but they've had plenty of time to prepare.

My hope is that people will learn lessons from this and from how people survived and how people died. What to do and what not to do. For example many deaths in Florence and Matthew in NC were from people in the dark moving barricades in roadways because they wanted to go check on someone or just wa nted to use that road and ended up dead in the middle of the night as the car went underwater. Barricades are there for a reason. A lesson many learned here and hopefully will not happen again.

But the survival stories may teach others in other hurricanes how to survive such a Major blow, tho it' rare to have such a Cat 5.

Adding this in from www.crownweather.com as he carefully said today what we were all dealing yesterday in the light of very little news from Jamaica yet what looked like incredible drone photos and imagery released online. As I said yesterday, "pics for clicks" as well as old video from Hurricane Beryl on Jamaica not Melissa. Check out his site, subscribe if you like as he's an awesome meteorologist. You can check him out on X and other sites online as well. I agree and I'm trying hard not to share images or videos that are fake. Melissa was not fake, she was a catastrophic rare strong Cat 5 making multiple landfalls in the Caribbean as opposed to strong Cat 5 Hurricanes dancing out in the distant Atlantic. Melissa was not fake, no fake images should be shared especially by people asking for donations for their sites.

@crownweather

"A word of caution when viewing the pictures and videos coming out of Jamaica and eastern Cuba – Use a lot of skepticism when you see them. Fake, AI-generated photos and videos of the hurricane damage have been rampant. It’s been tough for me to discern what is real and what is fake, so I’ve been trying to use reputable sources, including the chasers that were in Jamaica. The verified photos and videos from Black River, St. Elizabeth and Montego Bay do show extreme amounts of damage, including videos of some of Black River being leveled and completely destroyed. Sadly, I think that we are only see a very small percentage of the actual destruction that has occurred & it’s probably going to be several more days until we realize how bad the damage actually is across western Jamaica."

That said let's talk on Melissa.

Hurricane Melissa on the move in the Bahamas now!

3 PM image of Melissa.