Hurricane Melissa: Dozens killed as storm rips through Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti

Jamaica had braced itself for the storm of the century and Melissa did indeed wreak havoc. This police station was battered by a hundred and eighty-five miles per hour winds that ripped the roof from a hospital causing terror. Perhaps those who had worshipped at St. John's knew that a category 5 hurricane could be devastating but not that it would totally flatten their church. Jamaica's gone through one of its worst periods. Our infrastructure has been severely compromised. St. Elizabeth is the breadbasket of the country and that has taken a beating. The entire Jamaica has felt the brunt of Melissa. There was time to prepare for Melissa, tracked by this hurricane hunter flying into the eye of the storm as it inched its way to the west of the island. From space, a spinning kaleidoscope crashing over land and breaking records. This is a remarkable storm. Nothing is going to be able to withstand that kind of force. The winds so fast, so sustained, that they quickly confirmed Melissa as the worst storm in Jamaica's history. A lot of my friends house is gone. Friends like Pamela Benton who lives in the coastal town of Black River hardest hit by the storm. I have those stuff so I need some help. Please, I need some help. The future of Jamaica now is just pick up your pieces and see what you can move on to. There's not a lot of things you can do. Just pick up your pieces, clean it up and see what we can move on to. With communications down it is hard to know the death toll although it appeared relatively low as Jamaica took a breath to declare that Melissa had at least passed. The government of Jamaica has issued an all-clear. The end of the storm but only the start of assessing the fallout as they prayed for those next in line. Cuba evacuated 735,000 people as Melissa approached. Downgraded to a category 3 by the time it made landfall this morning but still a force to be reckoned with. Sweeping mayhem beyond its direct path. Dozens were killed in neighbouring Haiti after a river burst its banks in the town of Petit Guave. More tragedy for a nation that knows too well the pain of natural disasters. But Melissa is indifferent to the devastation left in her wake. Experts say these scenes in Jamaica are a visceral example of what climate change may mean for the planet. Not causing hurricanes but super charging them into something never seen before.