By ARIEL FERNÁNDEZ, ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ and JOHN MYERS JR., The Associated Press

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (AP) — People across the northern Caribbean were digging out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa on Thursday as deaths from the catastrophic storm climbed.

The storm has a confirmed death toll of at least 27, mostly in Haiti where flash flooding overtopped a river and submerged a community, killing 20, including 10 children, Haiti’s Office of Civil Protection confirmed to the Miami Herald .

That’s on top of the three deaths previously reported in Haiti ahead of Melissa’s landfall and another confirmed in the Dominican Republic, as well as three in Jamaica.

Emergency relief in Jamaica

The rumble of large machinery, whine of chainsaws and chopping of machetes echoed throughout so

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