ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada - Hurricane Ivan left Grenada a wasteland of flattened houses, twisted metal and splintered wood as it bore down on Jamaica with deadly winds and monstrous waves, forcing a half million people to flee their homes. The death toll in the Caribbean stood at 23 and was expected to rise. Ivan, a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph, was forecast to make a direct hit on Jamaica Friday afternoon. The hurricane devastated Grenada on Tuesday, tossing sailboats against the shore, tearing apart buildings and setting off frenzies of looting. "The destruction is worse than I've ever seen," said Michael Steele, a 34-year-old resident whose home was destroyed. "We're left with nothing." U.S. officials ordered people to evacuate from the Florida Keys after forecasters said the storm — the fourth major hurricane of the Atlantic season — could hit the island chain by Sunday after crossing Cuba. It was the third evacuation ordered in Florida in a month, following Hurricane Charley and Hurricane Frances. Ivan, already the deadliest hurricane to hit Caribbean islands in a decade, unleashed violent winds, downpours and waves across a wide area. It killed 13 people in Grenada, one in Tobago, four in Venezuela, one Canadian woman in Barbados, and four youngsters in the Dominican Republic who were swept away by a giant wave Thursday even though the storm was nearly 200 miles away. The worst damage struck Grenada, where house after house in the capital of St. George's was shredded by whipping winds. Stadium awnings collapsed, church roofs caved in and many trees snapped. Those left standing were stripped of leaves, giving a brownish tinge to debris-strewn hills overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Looting broke out Thursday as hundreds of people, including families with children, smashed storm shutters and shop windows to take televisions and shopping carts of food. Some carried away bed frames and mattresses. Police set up barricades on roads leading into the capital Thursday and ordered all but emergency workers off the streets. Hundreds of shouting and shoving people said they had to get to town to buy water and food, and in the turmoil police fired tear gas. Many people, however, managed to get through and ignored the curfew. Wandering the streets in search of water, 30-year-old housewife Dawn Brown said she and her children had run from room to room as Ivan ripped sections off their roof. Eventually, the house was roofless and the family hid under a mattress as violent winds howled around them. "I stared death in its face. What could be more scary than that?" Brown said. Some 220 homes also were damaged in Barbados, and the hurricane tore roofs from dozens of houses in St. Lucia. Sixty soldiers from Barbados, Antigua and St. Kitts arrived in Grenada to help restore order, military officials in Barbados said. Troops from Barbados and Trinidad were among those keeping watch at Grenada's airport, where the floors were still slick and dozens of American medical students stood waiting for chartered flights home. "Nothing is going to be functioning here for a long time," said Olivier de Raet, 37, a medical student from Potomac, Md., enrolled at St. George's University. "We'd rather go out, recuperate, and come back when school's ready." Electricity was knocked out on the island of 100,000 people, and homes had no running water or telephone service. Cell phone service was patchy. Some university students said they were afraid of being attacked by looters and armed themselves with knives and sticks. Three U.S. Peace Corps volunteers were unaccounted for in northern Grenada, said Barbara Daly, chief spokeswoman for the federal agency, but she blamed inadequate communications with "safe houses" where they had stayed in northern Grenada and said there was no reason to believe they were harmed. Officials said they planned to travel north by boat Friday to check on the three. Some areas were cut off by fallen trees and debris, suggesting the toll of dead and injured could rise. In Jamaica, hundreds of tourists packed the airport in northern Montego Bay late into the night, appearing set to spend the night. Dozens of foreigners also lined up at Kingston's airport trying to get home. Workers bolted plywood to windows, while grocery stores and gas stations stayed open late for crowds of people stocking up ahead of the storm. At 5 a.m. EDT, Ivan's eye was about 225 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. Hurricane-force winds extended 50 miles, while tropical storm-force winds stretched 175 miles. Ivan was moving west-northwest at 13 mph. In Cuba, President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) warned residents to brace for the storm. "Whatever the hurricane does, we will all work together" to rebuild, he said on Cuban television Thursday night, making clear his government would stick with its position of not accepting humanitarian aid from the U.S. government. Meanwhile, the first shipment of emergency relief arrived in Grenada Thursday from the United States. The U.S. Embassy in Barbados said it included blankets, plastic sheeting, dry food and water for 20,000 people. British troops who had arrived on a navy ship helped clear the damaged airport, ferried in supplies such as drinking water, and treated some 100 injured at a hospital where they restored generator power. Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, whose home was damaged, said Ivan also devastated Grenada's important nutmeg crop and did major damage to the island's 17th century stone prison, allowing convicts to escape — including politicians jailed for killings in a 1983 coup that led the United States to invade. Nineteen Americans died in the fighting, along with some 45 Grenadians and 24 Cubans. SOURCE: CARIBUPDATE.COM