Hurricane Melissa

[akt1985]

Haiti has confirmed 40 deaths from Melissa

Hurricane Melissa live updates: 20 dead in Haiti as Jamaicans warned recovery 'won't be easy'

King Charles says he is "profoundly saddened" by the damage across the Caribbean, as the storm heads to The Bahamas.

www.bbc.com

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

There is what appears to be significant debarking to multiple trees on a hill near Black River in a video; I'll share images when I get home.

From here

 

[tornado examiner]

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View attachment 48169
From here

That's nuts.

 

[vanni9283]

And the winds are measured differently too.

For hurricanes it's the highest average speed measured over a 1 minute time span in 5MPH increments with gusts measured separately. In modern times speeds must be measured on an approved anemometer or by other proven scientific method to be considered 'official'.

For tornadoes it's the highest speed reached without consideration of gusts, and usually it's estimated based on damage. I'm not sure there's an agreement on how to measure, or how long to measure these winds when measurement is possible.

Cup-type anemometers such as were all we had till modern times have a built-in 'lag' due to the inertia of the rotor and generally need about 3 seconds to stabilize to get an accurate measurement. Recent studies show that most can't be relied on for best accuracy past about 125MPH due to the behavior of wind forces on the back of the cups. I mentiion this because almost all of our record-setting hurricanes in past times were,measured this way making accurate direct comparisons with recent hurricanes impossible.
.

I doubt any anemometer would have survived the wind speeds in Melissa at its peak.

 

[tornado examiner]

Melissa was definitely the Atlantic’s picture perfect copy of haiyan. The complete destruction in the mountains is insanity.

 

[tornado examiner]

It managed to flip a van and shred every single tree.

 

[tornado examiner]

This is the worst wind based damage since Dorian.

 

[tornado examiner]

I've never seen such a large tree be uprooted by a hurricane like this

 

[lake.effect]

That damage video above is astonishing and heartbreaking.

Many if not most of those homes look well-constructed, and some of them are totally leveled. EF4 tornado damage.

This tops Dorian in terms of wind damage, no question. Tops Andrew, Goni and Haiyan too on wind damage I think. This is the most extreme wind damage I've seen from a tropical system, ever.

 

[WesL]

Quick reminder: When posting images or videos, please include the source. This helps if the content is removed from the original server, allowing users to access it via archive.org.

Social Media Links already have the source embedded.​

 

[jiharris0220]

First official video of the damage in Black River, nothing much to say other than this is Guiuan 2.0. Same DOD as Haiyan, definitely a notch above Dorian in Marsh Harbor and Beryl in Union Island.
Just concrete mansion after concrete mansion unroofed or destroyed, and homes not made of concrete are just all piles of rubble.
Debarked, bleached out trees and the usually resilient palm trees got pummeled.
You can’t get worse wind damage out of a hurricane than this.

 

[lake.effect]

I'm honestly impressed so far with the professional and organized response from the Jamaican government (I stress so far, we'll see what happens in the coming days).

The Prime Minister is already on the ground in the worst hit areas, the military is deployed to keep order in those areas, and there seems to be a tangible plan to get relief supplies into the country.

How long did it take Bush to visit New Orleans after Katrina, anyway? A week?

 

[tornado examiner]

Melissa will very likely see an upgrade to its official peak intensity.

 

[TornadoFan]

 

[Grand Poo Bah]

It's so wild to think this footage is from after the storm had significantly weakened.

 

[joshoctober16]

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From here

oh wow debarked trees from a hurricane.

 

[andyhb]

The damage along the southwest Jamaican coast is absolutely catastrophic and most of it is wind damage.

 

[jiharris0220]

Some pics from the fly over video. I can’t recall another instance of such destruction of numerous well built concrete homes, I shiver to think what would it could’ve looked like of the infrastructure was mostly made of wood, like the house in the first photo and second photo, just reduced to rubble/slabbed.


Picture on the bottom right is the court house.

 

[Clancy]

The clip at about 40 seconds where that little cat is walking around the rubble and meowing is heartbreaking.

The wind damage on the coast is utterly sobering - like I said before, the magnitude of debris clutter, and especially what she managed to do to trees, including very resilient and hardy ones, is really exceptional. Can't think of many like it.

Also, one road completely wiped out, Santa Cruz.

 

[Clancy]

The damage along the southwest Jamaican coast is absolutely catastrophic and most of it is wind damage.



View attachment 48171

Something worth noting here is you can see what appears to be coral, rock formations and other roughage that lined the immediate coastal waters. I would anticipate a lot of it will be severely damaged, if not completely washed away.