ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada - Hurricane Ivan left Grenada a wasteland of flattened houses, twisted metal and splintered wood and set off a frenzy of looting as it bore down on Jamaica today with deadly winds and monstrous waves. The death toll in the Caribbean stood at 23 and was expected to rise.

A half million people fled their homes in Jamaica, where Ivan - a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph - was forecast to make a direct hit Friday afternoon.

"The destruction is worse than I've ever seen," said Michael Steele, a 34-year-old Grenada 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.

At 8 a.m., Ivan's eye was about 165 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and was moving west-northwest at 13 mph. Hurricane-force winds extended 50 miles, while tropical storm-force winds stretched 175 miles.

The worst damage was in 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.