Melissa wreaks havoc across the Caribbean

HURRICANE Melissa has left dozens of people dead and widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica, where roofless homes, fallen utility poles and waterlogged furniture dominate the landscape.

- ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTERS

A landslide blocked the main roads of Santa Cruz, in Jamaica's St Elizabeth parish, where the streets were reduced to mud pits yesterday.

Residents swept water from homes as they tried to salvage belongings. Winds ripped off part of the roof at a local high school, a designated public shelter.

Melissa made landfall on Tuesday in Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm with top winds of 185mph, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, before weakening and moving on to Cuba, but even countries outside the direct path of the massive storm felt its devastating effects.

In Haiti, flooding from Melissa killed at least 25 people in the southern coastal town of Petit-Goave, its mayor told the Associated Press.