Despair spreads across historic Jamaica seaport demolished by Hurricane Melissa

A view of Black River, Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa (Matias Delacroix/AP)

The road from Jamaica’s capital to the seaside town of Black River was known for its lush bamboo forest that formed a natural tunnel and glowed green in the bright sun.

But its famed bamboo stalks lay strewn and shredded across the road in Hurricane Melissa’s aftermath, forcing Jamaican soldiers to chop at them with machetes in a desperate bid to reopen the main route to Black River, which the government has described as the storm’s “ground zero”.