Jamaica left reeling from hurricane
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared a "disaster area" and warned of "devastating impacts". The hurricane has now hit Cuba, bringing heavy winds and heavy rain, with warnings of storm surges.
Also on the programme: we hear about a new breath test which could revolutionise the treatment of pancreatic cancer; and the Spanish city of Valencia remembers the deadly floods of a year ago.
(Image: Broken tree branches lie on the street, after Hurricane Melissa made landfall, in Spur Tree, Manchester, Jamaica, October 29, 2025. Credit: Reuters/Octavio Jones)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | Hello, welcome to the programme. This is News Hour from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Henley. We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:16.8 | Hurricane Melissa has hit southern Cuba after causing widespread damage to Jamaica, |
| 0:22.5 | which authorities have designated a disaster area. |
| 0:25.3 | The storm has weakened to a category three hurricane, but still has winds of over 120 miles an hour. |
| 0:32.0 | In southwestern Jamaica, the parish of St Elizabeth was left underwater, |
| 0:36.6 | according to officials with more than 500,000 |
| 0:39.1 | residents without power. Widespread damage is reported to hospitals, homes, businesses and roads. |
| 0:46.3 | Matthew Samuda is Jamaica's Minister for Water, Environment and Climate Change. |
| 0:51.6 | Yesterday, we knew that the western, sorry, southwest and northwest, |
| 0:55.6 | tips would have particular levels of damage. What we are seeing this morning is that it's also |
| 1:00.5 | extended into central Jamaica, because much of the hurricane force winds did not reach till |
| 1:04.8 | sun had set, so seven, eight o'clock, we started feeling some of those impacts. |
| 1:09.5 | It will be a few more hours before we have |
| 1:12.1 | a full picture and from there we'll start to get a full understanding of the devastation. |
| 1:17.2 | Nick Davis is our correspondent in the Jamaican capital Kingston. He summarised the damage |
| 1:22.1 | caused overnight. I mean, the list is extensive and there are places which, to be fair, |
| 1:27.4 | lots of people who are tourists, lots of people who live here will have visited throughout their entire lives. |
| 1:32.9 | Hospitals, rural communities, the breadbasket parish, or at least one of them of Jamaica, St Elizabeth. |
| 1:40.1 | Extensive damage to the farming infrastructure down there. |
| 1:43.9 | Roads which are impassable and will be |
| 1:46.4 | for some time to come. Extensive flooding, I may I have mentioned before, mudslides. The list goes on |
... |
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