‘Melissa was a nightmare’

No power. No communication. Food supplies running low. Roads turned into rivers of debris.

For hundreds of Jamaicans in the hardest-hit communities, survival after Hurricane Melissa has become a day-to-day act of faith.

Melissa tore across the island as a Category 5 monster with winds of 185 miles per hour, leaving behind a trail of shattered homes, flooded fields and broken lives. In Black River, St Elizabeth, men and women lined up quietly at a relief hub, hoping for a box of food, a bottle of water, something to hold on to.