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Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

Af­ter Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa made land­fall as a Cat­e­go­ry 5 hur­ri­cane near New Hope, tear­ing through Ja­maica with winds of 185 miles per hour, the coun­try was plunged in­to dark­ness yes­ter­day. Pow­er lines col­lapsed, cars were swept away, roads were cut off, roofs were torn off, and homes were flat­tened. Across west­ern and south­ern parish­es—West­more­land, St Eliz­a­beth, Claren­don, and Man­ches­ter—fam­i­lies clung to what was left of their homes, while in the cap­i­tal, Kingston, stu­dents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) prayed.

Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness lat­er de­clared the is­land a dis­as­ter area.