Death toll increases as Melissa wreaks havoc in Caribbean

FLOODING from Hurricane Melissa has killed 25 people in Haiti while the storm still churned across Cuba yesterday after leaving Jamaica with widespread damage and power outages, officials said.

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Jean Bertrand Subreme, mayor of the southern Haitian coastal town of Petit-Goave, told The Associated Press that 25 people died after La Digue river burst its banks and flooded nearby homes.

Dozens of homes collapsed and people were still trapped under rubble as of yesterday morning, he said.

“I am overwhelmed by the situation,’ he said as he pleaded with the government to help rescue victims.

Only one official from Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency was in the area, with residents struggling to evacuate amid heavy floodwaters unleashed by Hurricane Melissa in recent days.

In Jamaica, more than 25,000 people were packed into shelters yesterday, hours after Melissa made landfall as a catastrophic category 5 storm with top winds of 185mph, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

People kept streaming into the shelters throughout the day after the storm ripped off the roofs of their homes and left them temporarily homeless.

“It’s not going to be an easy road, Jamaica; said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica's Disaster Risk Management Council. “I know persons... are wondering what their futures are going to be like”