WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is pledging that the United States will help the island nations of the Caribbean on a “humanitarian basis” as Hurricane Melissa continues to ravage the area.

“We’re watching it closely, and we’re prepared to move,” the president told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to South Korea. “It’s doing tremendous damage as we speak.”

The president, who is wrapping up a four-day trip to Asia, indicated he was watching the storm during his travels. He expressed shock at the size of Melissa, which was a Category 5 storm, the highest rating given.

“I’ve never seen numbers like that. I saw a little while ago — 195-mile-hour wind. I guess it can get that high but I’ve never seen it and it’s literally just knocking down everything in front of it. It’s a stage 5, I guess. You don’t see 5s very often,” Trump said.

Melissa hit Jamaica on Tuesday, knocking out communications and power across the island. Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the country a disaster area. The damage and death toll remain uncertain.

“We are seeing extensive damage,” said Richard Thompson, acting director of the Office of Disaster Emergency Preparedness.

Thompson said tourist mecca Montego Bay is underwater.

“This morning the fire brigade is out trying to see how we can rescue people,” he said, describing how people were forced to take shelter on rooftops.

Thompson said “we have not received any reports of dead just far.”

The storm’s power decreased as it made its way across the Caribbean, but it remains deadly.

It clocked in as a Category 3 storm when it struck Cuba on Wednesday morning, bringing up to 20 inches of flooding rain, high winds and up to 12 feet of storm surge. It has been down-graded to a Category 2 storm.

More damage, however, is expected.

The National Hurricane Center warned of “catastrophic flash flooding and landslides” in Haiti and the Dominican Republic along with dangerous storms striking the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.

Melissa is the first major natural disaster to hit the Caribbean since the Trump administration dismantled USAID, typically the lead agency in responding with foreign hurricane assistance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the agency’s functions would be absorbed by the State Department.

The State Department confirmed Jamaica has formally asked for help. The department is working with “the government accordingly to assist the people affected by Hurricane Melissa,” a spokesperson told the Miami Herald.

Disaster response teams will be deployed to areas in need of assistance.

“The State Department maintains warehouses around the world from which we can distribute lifesaving aid in the aftermath of natural disasters,” the spokesperson added. “The department has pre-positioned emergency relief supplies in six warehouses that will allow for the distribution of emergency relief supplies to people affected by the storm.”

The federal Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration was given the responsibility for international disaster relief. But much of the staff in that bureau was later laid off.

A former senior official at USAID told the Herald that the State Department absorbed some USAID staff with hurricane response experience but added that those staff “are very buried in bureaucracy and don’t have the partner networks, tools and resources they would have at USAID.”

Typically, staff at USAID would start hurricane preparations in June, which would include meeting with local officials, building networks between Caribbean nations, and conducting exercises with the U.S. military to help with logistical needs given these storms affect airports and other infrastructure.

The Trump administration “offered a lot humanitarian assistance” in its first term, the former official noted.

The United Nations is also offering assistance and has deployed teams to the area.

Additionally, the United Nations has allocated $4 million apiece for Haiti and Cuba from its Central Emergency Response Fund.

Melissa is the most powerful storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season thus far. After its destructive path across the Caribbean, Melissa is projected to move northeast across the Atlantic Ocean and dissipate.

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(Goodin reported from Washington and Charles from Miami.)

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