Mel's wake of devastation..

295kph winds leave health and power crisis as towns flattened

- BY PATRICK HILL, JOSHUA WHORMS and SHANNON MILLER

ENTIRE towns were left flattened yesterday while three quarters of Jamaicans were without power as they began the clean-up following the storm of the century.

The Category 5 Hurricane Melissa has killed at least 37 people across the Caribbean, including in Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, with winds of 295kph after making landfall on Tuesday.

With infrastructure destroyed and communities cut off in Jamaica, over 25,000 people packed into shelters as the storm ripped roofs off their houses to leave them temporarily homeless.

Citizens were last night urged to give blood after the country's health ministry declared a critically low level of stocks.

Jamaica's Norman nternationa Manley inter airport has partly reopened, bolstering desperately needed relief efforts with the arrival of water, food and other basic supplies.

The army has also moved in to help with soldiers making their way through the worst-hit areas on foot.