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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Natricia Duncan in Kingston

‘The town is devastated’: the mayor picking up the pieces at Hurricane Melissa’s ‘ground zero’

A drone view of flooding after Hurricane Melissa made landfall in the parish of St Elizabeth, Jamaica, on Wednesday.
A drone view of flooding after Hurricane Melissa made landfall in the parish of St Elizabeth, Jamaica, on Wednesday. Photograph: Maria Alejandra Cardona/Reuters

The mayor of Black River – a town that Jamaica’s prime minister called “ground zero” for Hurricane Melissa – has described the monstrous storm surges and devastation the storm has wrought on its residents.

Speaking to the Guardian, Richard Solomon recounted the traumatic experience of riding out the Category 5 “storm of the century” at an emergency operating centre.

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