Much more destructive due to climate change, the phenomenon was the strongest to hit the country in 90 years and left 32 people dead
Almost a week after touch the ground As one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded, the Caribbean island is mobilizing to help populations seriously affected by the catastrophe, which left at least 32 people dead. Much more destructive due to climate change, the hurricane was the strongest to hit the country in 90 years and arrived in Jamaica as a category 5 phenomenon, the maximum level on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of around 300 km/h.
The balance released by local authorities “is currently 32 deaths, but we expect this number to increase”, informed the Minister of Information, Dana Morris Dixon, during a press conference this Monday (3), mentioning another “eight cases not yet confirmed” so far. “We need all the help we can get. We need food, water, hygiene items,” said Tackeisha Frazer, a resident of the western province of Westmoreland, one of the hardest hit by Melissa’s rampage.
“There are many displaced people who have nowhere to sleep or anything to eat. This crisis is overtaking us”, highlighted Frazer, while waiting in line at an improvised distribution center for basic necessities. Millicent McCurdy, one of the volunteers, made an appeal to the international community: “These people are without a home, without clothes, without food or water. They need help”, she insisted.
Residents and volunteers form a human chain to unload a truck full of goods: packages of bottled water, boxes of food and rolls of toilet paper. On the island, a man repairs a roof, hammer in hand. A woman and a child hitchhike on the side of the road. Goats feed as best they can on branches among the rubble.
At Whitehouse, the sea is turquoise, but the roofs and trees have been ripped away by Melissa’s force, while the wreckage of the destruction piles up. “It’s a truly terrible, terrible, terrible scenario,” laments trader Diana Mullings. “All the wooden structures are gone, all, all, all, even the concrete stores.”
This Monday, Jamaica’s Minister of Labor, Pearnel Charles Junior, stated that there are still “around 25 isolated communities in the world”, which it was not possible to reach a week after the catastrophe. In the best case scenario, he said, they will begin receiving supplies dropped from helicopters.
*With information from AFP
