StEER: Hurricane Melissa Annotated Media Repository , in StEER - 28 October 2025 Hurricane Melissa

Since 1912, Jamaica has experienced six major hurricanes, striking on average every 23 years and repeatedly disrupting communities, infrastructure, and the economy. The latest among these is Hurricane Melissa which made landfall October 28, 2025 on Jamaica’s southwestern coast near New Hope in Westmoreland Parish at 1:00 PM EDT (17:00 UTC). The storm made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane with estimated maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h) and an estimated minimum central pressure of 892 mb, placing it among the most intense storms on record in the Atlantic basin. After crossing Jamaica from southwest to northeast, Melissa made a second landfall in eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm, while also impacting parts of Haiti. In response, StEER activated a Level 1 response to evaluate Hurricane Melissa with a Virtual Assessment Structural Team (VAST) formed on October 28, 2025. The VAST was tasked with producing the primary product of this Level 1 response: this Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR) and accompanying Media Repository (this file). This annotated media repository is a supplement to StEER for the Hurricane Melissa Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR). The repository is a visual catalog of geolocated photographic evidence, organized by different hazard and structural classes, and annotated with team member interpretations and analyses.