Hurricane Melissa Makes Landfall

NBC News Radio National Correspondent Rory O'Neill joins us to discuss the impact of Hurricane Melissa. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man, it can take years to recover in places like
the United States where there are hurricane codes and whatnot,
let alone where this hurricane is headed. This is West
Michigan's Morning News. Steve, Kelly, Bread, Kita Laurence Smith, NBC
News Radio National correspondent Rory O'Neil. Thanks for doing this today. Hey, Steve,
good morning. So let's talk a little bit about Hurricane Melissa,

(00:21):
and we mentioned the most powerful storm of the season.
How is it, where is it and what kind of
damage are we seeing.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, we really are waiting to get those damage assessments
in once the sun comes up and they can try
to get a better idea as to exactly what kind
of damage Melissa inflicted. Around three o'clock this morning, the
storms made landfall for a second time in eastern Cuba.
So today we're concerned about our troops in Guantanamo Bay
and that part of the island. But in just a

(00:51):
few hours the storm is expected to pull away from
Cuba march toward the Bahamas. You know, one of the
things that's changed, or I guess two big numbers have changed.
One the winds have come down. They hit Jamaica with
one hundred and eighty five mile for hour winds. That's
now down to about one hundred and fifteen, still a
Category three hurricane, but not the Cat five beast that

(01:12):
hit Jamaica. Also important to note is that the forward
speed has changed. Yesterday this time we were talking about
how it was only moving around three miles an hour.
That's almost stationary with this thing just sitting there dumping
more rain, more rain, more rain. Now it's over twelve
miles an hour, and that speed is expected to increase
as it pulls off over the Bahamas tomorrow then perhaps

(01:34):
toward Bermuda as well as a Cat one system.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Rory, any idea exactly we were talking about in feet
yesterday how much rainfall hit Jamaica.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, what happens is oftentimes because power goes out because
of the measurement devices get damaged. It's always tough to
find good accurate assessments like that. We do know that
some parts measured over thirty inches of rain over the
past couple of days. And that's also because you know,
it was a tropical storm, as they had said, sitting

(02:06):
there slowly moving up, so it's so much time to
dump so much rain onto Jamaica, you know, flooding is
a big concern, you know. Obviously the focus now is
going to be get the airports open so that the
relief can get in, other people can get out as needed,
get the hospitals assessed and reopened, and of course that
means getting the transportation going, so making sure that the

(02:27):
roads are safe and open, and analyzing which roads have
been washed out or bridges washed away.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Most of the time that we talked to Rory, he's
in his home state of Florida that deals with these
things a little more regularly than the rest of the
states in the country. But when we talk about infrastructure
and ability to help people in these situations, are there
places in Jamaica in Cuba for people to even go.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, there are, I mean they had what eight hundred
and ninety shelters that were set up. We're not even
sure how well all those shelters, you know, was stood this.
You know, not much in the US could we stand
a one hundred and eighty five mile per hour wind
going on for hours at a time. And then you
add the storm surge, which was measured at I think
at least twelve feet in some spots. So it's a

(03:14):
again we haven't even started the assessment process. And I
know we talked about rebuilding and getting a new electric
grid in place for the western part of the island
and sewer and water, but you also got to clear
out all that stuff. These storms create so much debris
it's almost impossible to handle it all. Clearing roads, getting
trees out of roadways, getting those power poles removed and replaced,

(03:38):
Removing all this down and broken stuff is such a
herculean task that takes so much time. And then you
complicate things because this is just all happening on a
little island. It's not like we can call in support
from two thousand miles away like we do here in
the US.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
And speaking of that, not that it's always about us,
but it takes a little right and doesn't affect the
Eastern Seaboard.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Right, so Bermuda is probably the last concern beyond the Bahamas,
and then it's going to stay out at sea. We
believe the forecast track is a very narrow cone, so
they're pretty confident about where this storm is going to
be going and the upper level wind systems that are
going to carry this thing faster away from the US mainland.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
That is Rory O'Neil, NBC News Radio National correspondent, Thank you,
Thanks guys,