Donation boxes towered over Michelle Williamson as she walked through the Global Empowerment Mission’s warehouse. She pointed to crates stacked ceiling-high with donations bound for Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.
“[This] is not a one time event… We need to keep [support] going, especially with diseases and water contamination. It’s just gonna get worse before it gets better,” said Williamson, President of the Jamaican Women of Florida, a local nonprofit dedicated to empowering Jamaican women in Florida.
Since making landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm on Oct. 28, at least 90,000 people have been displaced, according to a report from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.
Hurricane Melissa is the strongest storm in recorded history to hit Jamaica. Its catastrophic winds and flash flooding may only be a symptom of a larger climate issue.
“This is a pattern that’s consistent with what we could expect to see in a warming world. If you increase temperatures across the globe, you’re going to increase sea surface temperature. And that raises the ceiling for how strong these storms can get,” said Dr. Michael Fisher, professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami.
“This past hurricane season, we had three Category 5 hurricanes. It’s a very unusual hurricane season, from that perspective.”
'Like a bomb went through'
While atmospheric scientists work to predict the emergencies of the future, the people of Jamaica are still picking up the pieces. Fallen electrical lines, debris, wind-snapped trees and severely damaged roofs are still the reality in many parts of the island, especially the hard-hit western coast.
“When you look at the place, it looks like a bomb went through,” Williamson said, leaning forward in a safety vest. “There’s different levels of devastation when it comes to friends and people that I know there. From some just losing the roof to others that have lost everything.”
The Jamaican government estimates about 150,000 homes and buildings were damaged and at least 45 people killed during the storm.
The storm also devastated its tourism industry, which accounts for about a third of the economy.
For Williamson, this widespread destruction hits close to home.
“In Clarendon, where I’m from, I have family members who lost power, lost water. But not as bad as in St. James right now, where our grandparent’s family home is. That whole house is gone,” she said.
Around 45% of Jamaicans are still without electricity in St. James Parish, according to a recent report from the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), the island’s sole electricity provider. In Jamaica’s western most parish, Westmoreland, 88% of households are without electricity.
A mix of debris, flooding, garbage backlogs and power outages have created a petri dish for public health emergencies. Thousands are still struggling to access clean water and proper sanitation.
On the island, an outbreak of Leptospirosis, a rare bacterial illness that spreads through floodwaters, is contaminating soil and areas with poor sanitation.
Saving Melody House
In response, Jamaican Women of Florida has ramped up support to Melody House, a house for abandoned and abused girls in Montego Bay. The area was one of the worst hit by the hurricane.
Bethany Young, a board member for Melody House, saw this public health emergency up close.
“Garbage collection has been slowed because roads were blocked and people were throwing out everything that was in their fridge [with the power outages]. Some people got flooded and are throwing out their mattresses and sofas. So, you have a lot of garbage piled up.”
Melody House in Montego Bay is still surrounded by fallen trees and debris. The roof is now covered in sheets of tarp. In the distance, you can see the picturesque mountains. But in the immediate vicinity of the house, the gate has fallen and their chicken coop is severely damaged.
Before the storm, Young drove to Montego Bay to stay with her mother and check on Melody House.
“My mother’s front door wouldn’t stay closed. So it kept blowing in with the wind because the wind was just so ferocious,” Young said. “When you’re inside a house in a hurricane, you are hearing the trees falling, you’re hearing the walls being battered, the doors being hit.”
Young’s mother just got her electricity back in early December.
“When you have no water and no electricity, it’s very, very difficult. I mean just your daily tasks, flushing the toilet, taking a shower, washing our hands, washing the dishes, everything just becomes tedious,” Young said.
“My mom’s house is near the water. We only had enough water for five days. On the seventh day, we had to start getting buckets from the sea to flush the toilets.”
The girls in Melody House, without families to weather the storm with, spent that day sheltering in place together. Young remembers walking into Melody House in the aftermath.
“The whole house leaked. And so a lot of their [the girls’] clothes got wet, their mattresses got wet, their sheets got wet,” Young said on a WhatsApp call. “When I got there the next day, they were in good spirits, but I do think it was traumatizing for anyone who was in Western Jamaica.”
Hurricane halts expansion plans
Before the storm, Melody House was in the midst of building a transitional home for girls that age out of their care. However, Hurricane Mellisa has halted those plans. Currently, the organization is focused on rebuilding.
Jamaican Women of Florida are financially supporting them in this process.
“The Jamaican Women of Florida has been a partner [even] before the hurricane,” Young said. “They got a generator because the home still doesn’t have electricity. So now, the girls can have some lights in the evenings.”
The conditions of Melody House point to a larger trend on the island, especially concerning women and girls. According to an October report from UN Women, after Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica, thousands of women and girls were sheltering under unsafe or unstable conditions.
“As a mother, you’re worried about your children and where they will sleep each night. If you’ve lost your roof, how do you protect [them] from mosquitos? Where do you get food? There is concern about mosquito-borne diseases, like dengue fever,” said Young.
For Williamson, the toll of Hurricane Melissa has also been challenging for Jamaican women living in Florida.
“We carry the family,” she explained. “We are expected to do so much, regardless of whatever we’re going through. I feel like women bear the brunt of everything.”
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Global Empowerment Mission is located at1850 NW 84th Ave, Unit 100 in Doral and is accepting donations Monday-Friday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
Melody House is also accepting donations through their website: https://www.melodyhomeforgirls.com/
This story was originally published by CommunityWire.Miami, an independent, community news outlet in the School of Communication at the University of Miami. The news service, staffed primarily by graduate journalism students, provides informative and interesting coverage of the university’s nearby cities.
