Black Community Opinions

Jamaicans On Island And In Diaspora Join Hands To Rebuild

Weeks after Hurricane Melissa devastated large sections of Jamaica, residents and members of the diaspora are still confronting widespread damage, power outages, and homelessness while grassroots relief efforts step in where official response has lagged.
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By Barrington M. Salmon
TriceEdneyWire.com

In the days following the slow and destructive path of Hurricane Melissa across section of Jamaica in late October, worldwide attention focused on the island’s recovery.

In the seven weeks since, the world has moved on to other issues and stories, but those Jamaicans most affected by the second strongest Atlantic hurricane on record are still struggling to stabilize lives upended by the tempest.

U.S.-based healthcare executive Lana Walker’s parents were born and raised in Bunkers Hill, Trelawny, so as soon as they were able to, she and her husband Paul Salmon flew down to Jamaica with food, water, other essential supplies.

“We got there faster than the government did,” said Walker, whose parents are from the Bunkers Hill community in Trelawny and who still has brothers and family there. “We took cases of water, food, cots and other essentials. My people were born there. I was not born there, but I call it home …”

Walker said it was extremely difficult and deeply distressing to see the wreckage and remnants of once-vibrant communities, saying the landscape looked as if a bomb had gone off and laid whole places bare.

“I am tough, tough as nails and I have a reputation of being tough, but I could not help but cry. What I saw brought me to tears,” she said. “The videos were bad, but on the ground, houses were gone, light poles were down. Many of them were bent and barely hanging on. The road are bad, there’s no electricity and I witnessed people’s desperation.”

According to The Gleaner, Hurricane Melissa’s overall impact shows more than 170 communities across those six parishes were hit with flooding, landslides, and wind damage.

More than 156,000 homes were damaged with 24,000 counted as total losses, the Jamaica Information Service reported. Meanwhile, massive power outages affected hundreds of thousands of people with significant numbers of Jamaica still without power.

Businessman Donovan Haughton partnered with Walker to secure, repackage and distribute food and water and set up a makeshift food bank to offer assistance to residents of Bunkers Hill who are stranded, hungry and homeless since the hurricane slammed their community.

“It was easy to jump in even though I suffered a catastrophic event. We made videos and made appeal. Persons like Lana never held back. We have employed a rigorous application of this purposeful journey,” said Haughton, who said his home is completely destroyed. There is an old African adage, ‘It takes a village …”

Haughton said he grew up in a household with a single mom, recalling that Walker helped him when he was going to high school.

Haughton said he solicited help and donations from friends, family, schoolmates and others

Walker said she drove a Toyota Corolla and Paul, a Toyota minivan, both filled to capacity.

“We didn’t experience much traffic but roads from Wakefield are atrocious – potholes the size of craters.”

Walker said the couple delivered 10 cases of water, an assortment of food, sanitary pads, clothes, shoes, toiletries, underwear for people of all ages, mosquito repellent, flashlights, tarpaulin for the school, disposable urinal bags and much more.

“All of the items were distributed in less than 30 minutes,” she said. “I was able to arrange a delivery of 70 cots, blankets and care packages for 60 folks sleeping at the Community Center and others at the school. One could hear the despair in their voices and see it in their eyes.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness estimates Melissa’s damage to be almost $8 billion. Aid has been pouring into the country from countries, institutions and individuals for a recovery program that will take years.

“With no shelter, no jobs, no water, this is still a very desperate situation so we’ve teamed up to get relief for Christmas. We’re offering a little feel-good hope for the community,” Walker said.

“We’re going to cook food on Boxing Day (Dec. 26) and kinda lift people’s spirits. We also want to raise money to buy zinc and tarpaulin because the zinc is twisted up. We’re planning a zinc movement because rain is still coming …”