The normal soundtrack that accompanies Jamaican life is silent this morning as many have woken to no electricity.<\/p>\n
About three-quarters of the island is without power and many parts of its western side are under water, with homes destroyed by strong winds after Hurricane Melissa tore across the island with catastrophic force.<\/p>\n
As wind and rain lashed through the night, one local official said the destruction resembled \u201cthe scene of an apocalypse movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
With communications crippled, the true scale of the disaster remains unknown. Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the island a \u201cdisaster area\u201d late Tuesday, warning of \u201cdevastating impacts\u201d and \u201csignificant damage\u201d to hospitals, homes and businesses.<\/p>\n
Although no deaths have yet been confirmed, Montego Bay\u2019s mayor Richard Vernon told the BBC his first task at daybreak would be \u201cto check if everybody is alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to strike Jamaica in modern history, barrelled across the country on Tuesday, leaving behind a trail of ruin.<\/p>\n
At its peak, the hurricane sustained winds of 298 km\/h (185 mph) \u2013 stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005 and killed 1,392 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt resembled the scene of an apocalypse movie\u201d, an MP in western Jamaica told Kingston-based journalist Kimone Francis of The Jamaica Gleaner.<\/p>\n
Francis described the night as \u201cstressful\u201d and \u201cintense\u201d, marked by relentless heavy wind and rain.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have a connection. You can\u2019t speak to the people you normally speak to,\u201d she told the BBC World Service\u2019s Newsday programme.<\/p>\n
Across Jamaica\u2019s central parishes, Francis said, floodwaters rose to the roofs of two-storey homes.<\/p>\n
One anonymous woman told the BBC: \u201cThere is water coming in through the roof of my house. I am not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
While no fatalities had been confirmed, Jamaica\u2019s prime minister told CNN he feared \u201cthere would be some loss of life.\u201d Damage, he said, was widespread \u2013 hitting hospitals, schools, homes and businesses.<\/p>\n
Local government minister Desmond Mckenzie said on Tuesday afternoon that the southwestern parish of St Elizabeth was \u201cunder water\u201d, with at least three families trapped in their homes in the community of Black River.<\/p>\n
\u201cRescue teams are struggling to reach them because of the dangerous conditions\u201d, he said at a news conference.<\/p>\n
Verna Genus was sheltering from the storm at her four bedroom home in the village of Carlisle, St Elizabeth, when the hurricane ripped the zinc roof off her house.<\/p>\n
The 73-year-old vegetable farmer was in the house with her sons and baby grandchild when the hurricane made landfall over the area.<\/p>\n
Verna has lost communications due to the power lines being down. But her UK-based sister, June Powell, spoke to the BBC about what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was crying on the phone,\u201d June said, adding: \u201cYou are huddled up inside and then you look up then the roof is gone. I have never heard her like that \u2013 she was wailing \u2018we are all finished.’\u201d<\/p>\n
She is anxiously waiting for the communications networks to be restored so she can talk to her sister.<\/p>\n
St Elizabeth, known as Jamaica\u2019s breadbasket, produces much of the island\u2019s produce. With crops submerged and fields destroyed, many farmers will struggle to financially recover.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The normal soundtrack that accompanies Jamaican life is silent this morning as many have woken to no electricity. About three-quarters of the island is without power and many parts of its western side are under water, with homes destroyed by strong winds after Hurricane Melissa tore across the island with catastrophic force. As wind and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}