Black River, Jamaica
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The air smells of damp earth and drying mud. Smoke from debris fires mixes with a faint tang of fuel from the few generators that still have gas. Every sound carries: the strike of hammers and the scrape of shovels as Jamaicans try to dig out and rebuild after Hurricane Melissa slammed into the island.
CNN reached the hardest-hit western parishes and the towns of Belmont, Black River and White House, where destruction is uneven but staggering. Some neighborhoods are gutted, others look untouched.
Roofs were peeled away, and windows blown out in the Category 5 hurricane, leaving no protection from the rain and up to 16 feet of seawater driven onto land…
