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The devastation is complete in Guamá, a coastal municipality in Santiago de Cuba, where Hurricane Melissa made landfall this Wednesday with winds exceeding 190 km/h.
Images shared by journalist Luis De Jesús depict a scene of destruction: homes demolished, trees uprooted, and roads blocked by tons of debris.
This is what Guamá looks like today, the town in Santiago de Cuba where Hurricane Melissa made landfall. We went there to talk to the local residents and see the damage caused by the devastating cyclone,” posted the reporter @ldejesusreyes on the social network X (formerly Twitter), accompanying his message with videos taken on site.
The images show houses completely destroyed, downed power lines, and impassable roads blocked by stones.
In some areas, the roofs were completely torn off, and the electrical wires were left hanging on the ground.
“Almost nothing is left. The school collapsed and the clinic lost its roof,” recounted one of the neighbors of the town of Uvero, the epicenter of Melissa's initial impact. “We took refuge in a masonry house, but the wind was so strong that we thought the wall was going to give way.”
Melissa made landfall on the southeastern coast of Cuba in the early hours of Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane, striking with particular intensity in the municipality of Guamá, where wind gusts exceeded 200 km/h and waves reached more than three meters in height.
The cyclone, considered the most powerful to have struck the eastern region since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, left a preliminary toll of thousands of affected individuals and significant material damage in Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguín, and Granma.
"It is the strongest hurricane we have experienced in many years," said a resident of Chivirico, one of the hardest-hit areas. "The sea came inland and the water reached our chests. We lost everything."
A 48 hours after the passage of Melissa, communications remain disrupted in much of the southern coast of Santiago de Cuba. Dozens of communities are without electricity.
In the coastal area, Melissa's progress caused the collapse of roads and landslides in the mountains near the Sierra Maestra.
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