Hurricane Melissa Devastates Cuba and Haiti: UN Press Conference

Hurricane Melissa's Impact on Cuba

• 🌪️ Hurricane Melissa is classified as one of the three most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in Cuba, making landfall in Santiago de Cuba with winds exceeding 200 km/h.
• 💧 Heavy rainfall and landslides have affected five eastern provinces, impacting over 3 million people and cutting off nearly 240 communities.
• 🏠 Significant damage to housing, critical infrastructure including health facilities and schools, power lines, and telecommunications has been reported.
• 🌾 Food production is compromised due to extensive damage to crops and farmland.
• ⚠️ The situation is compounded by existing droughts, a rise in arboviral diseases, and frequent blackouts.
• 🌍 Cuba faces challenges in financing disaster response due to blockades and sanctions, hindering access to international financial institutions and global markets.

UN Response and Preparedness in Cuba

• ⚡ Cuba's civil defense system demonstrated strength with over 735,000 people evacuated to repurposed school protection centers.
• 🤝 The UN system implemented an anticipatory action framework, allowing for pre-event intervention and prepositioning of goods, aiding humanitarian response despite restrictions.
• 💰 Support from the Central Emergency Response Fund has been crucial for this anticipatory action mechanism.
• 📈 An action plan is being prepared to assist approximately 2 million people across six humanitarian sectors: food security, health, education, shelter, water and sanitation, and logistics.

Hurricane Melissa's Impact on Haiti

• 🌊 Hurricane Melissa brought torrential rains, flash floods, and landslides across Haiti's southern departments, moving slowly and causing widespread damage.
• 💔 A death toll of 24 people has been reported, with significant numbers injured and missing, including a tragic incident in Patigava due to an overflowing river.
• 🏘️ Approximately 15,000 people were sheltered in over 120 temporary shelters, primarily in Sudep and Gondons departments.
• 📉 Substantial agricultural losses, including destroyed fruit trees and food crops, have been reported, alongside saturated soils and access issues.

Preparedness and Ongoing Challenges in Haiti

• 💡 The SURF Anticipatory Action Fund provided nearly $4 million for rapid preparedness, making a significant difference in response efforts.
• 📦 UN agencies deployed resources, mobilized communities, and prepositioned emergency stocks, food, water, hygiene kits, and shelter materials.
• 📢 Early warning messages were sent to an estimated 3.5 million people, informing them of the danger and evacuation procedures.
• 🤝 Proactive engagement with national authorities, particularly the Directorate of Civil Protection, ensured operational coordination and saved lives.
• ⚠️ Full humanitarian assessments are ongoing due to access difficulties, with a need to understand the complete impact on human toll and infrastructure.
• 🆘 Haiti faces an immense humanitarian crisis on top of the hurricane's impact, including 1.4 million displaced people due to gang violence, widespread gender-based violence, and a public health emergency with cholera outbreaks.
• 📉 The humanitarian response plan is severely underfunded (87%), jeopardizing life-saving operations.

Immediate Needs

• 💰 Both Cuba and Haiti urgently require funding to implement their respective response and recovery plans.
• 🗺️ Assessments are critical to understand the full extent of damage and human toll, especially in Haiti where access remains a challenge.