‘How do you rebuild all this?’ Black River residents assess damage after Hurricane Melissa

Men gather at a destroyed building after the passage of Hurricane Melissa. Photograph: Ina Sotirova/The Guardian

It is a treacherous journey to Black River, a coastal town in Jamaica’s southwestern parish of St Elizabeth, which this week bore the brunt of Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

Uprooted trees and lamp-posts, rubble from landslides, huge potholes and miles of thick, slippery silt from severe flooding have turned the route into a dangerous obstacle course.