Death toll rises as Melissa wreaks havoc in Caribbean

At least 25 people are dead in Haiti, 700,000 are in shelters in Cuba and towns are underwater in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa, the 'storm of the century', moved across the region

- MARYAM ZAKIR-HUSSAIN

The death toll from Hurricane Melissa entered double digits last night amid widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica, where roofless homes and flooded roads and towns dominated the landscape.

At least 25 people have died in Haiti, with 18 more missing, Haiti's Civil Protection Agency said in a statement yesterday.

Twenty of those reported dead and 10 of the missing are from the southern coastal town of Petit-Goave.

Hurricane Melissa damaged more than 160 homes and destroyed 80 others, with 10 of the 20 people killed there confirmed to be children.

Lawyer Charly Saint-Vil, 30, said he saw bodies lying among the debris after the storm as he walked the streets of the small coastal town where he grew up.

“People have lost everything,” he said, adding that they screamed as they searched for their children.

Although the immediate threat of the storm has passed, Mr Saint-Vil said Petit-Goave's residents were fearful of having no access to medicine, water and food in the coming days, given the political instability in Haiti. “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” he said.

For now, neighbours are helping one another source necessities and find places to sleep.

Mr Saint-Vil is hosting a number of friends who lost their homes in his small apartment. “What I can do, I will do it, but it’s not easy because the situation is really complicated for everyone,” he said.

In Cuba, officials reported collapsed houses, blocked mountain roads and roofs blown off buildings yesterday, with the heaviest destruction concentrated in the southwest and northwest of the island.

Authorities said around 735,000 people remained in shelters.