NEW YORK, USA — With thousands of their compatriots rendered homeless, facing starvation, and the death toll rising from the impact of last week’s Hurricane Melissa, Jamaicans in the United States have put aside differences to come to their assistance.

A massive relief effort from one end of the US to the next is being led by the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, DC, in co-ordination with the Jamaican consulates in New York and Miami and the umbrella Global Jamaica Diaspora Council (GJDC), the largest Government-supported grouping of Jamaicans.

The Jamaica Diaspora Foundation and the Jamaica Diaspora Task Force on Crime and Crime Prevention, led by Dr Rupert Francis, said it was working with several organisations to bring aid to impacted Jamaicans.

After an acrimonious relationship, Dr Francis seemed to have buried the axe with the GJDC over differences with how the Jamaican Government was handling matters such as crime, education and health.

Some of the entities which have thrown their weight behind the overall relief effort include the Empowerment Mission; Food for the Poor; a large group of churches; past students associations; traditional charities and hundreds of individuals who have been volunteering to work with those organisations.

Jamaicans were still reeling yesterday from the catastrophic damage left by last week Tuesday’s hurricane which drove winds of 185 miles per hour and torrential rains causing raging floods that cut off whole communities, robbed most of the island of power and communication services and savaged businesses.

“The relief effort is concentrated on meeting the immediate needs of those who have been affected and aimed at long term restoration plans,” said Christopher Benjamin, community relations officer at the Jamaican Consulate in New York.

“As such, a list compiled by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is being used as the template to secure the items most needed at this point. This is to ensure that some of the pitfalls we encountered during Hurricane Beryl last year are not repeated,” Benjamin told the Jamaica Observer.

The list of urgently needed items compiled by ODPEM includes medical supplies; 10,000 generators; 110,000 tarpaulins; 100,000 mattresses; tents; portable flood lights; and batteries. Those planning to contribute to the relief effort at this time were being asked to give priority to those items which are listed by the Government.

Benjamin said the consulate is working with various agencies to set up drop off locations for the items. The St Lucia House in Brooklyn which houses a community centre and the St Lucian Consulate in New York had already been identified among such locations.

The Jamaican consulate was also holding discussions with the Bronx and Brooklyn borough presidents on the relief efforts.

The GJDC for the Northeast United States has in the meantime identified several locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Rhode Island as drop-off points, according to Michelle Tulloch-Neil, the representative for the area.

Tulloch-Neil’s counterpart in the Southern US, Peter Gracey, said locations have been established in Lauderhill and Miramar in South Florida and in Atlanta, Georgia. He said that the GJDC for the Southern US is working closely with the Jamaican Consulate in Miami and the Global Empowerment Mission, a non-profit entity, to co-ordinate relief efforts in the region.

Food for the Poor, the non-profit charity organisation, is the designated entity which will handle shipping of the items to Jamaica, according to Gracey, who pointed people wishing to contribute to the relief effort to information on the newly launched online app Jamaica: Stay connected, his online version of a book — The Jamaica Diaspora Resource Handbook — aimed at helping Jamaicans overseas to navigate a range of issues.

Two Ocala, Florida-based churches — The Church of the Risen Saviour and World Outreach Evangelical Ministry — which have predominantly Jamaican congregations, are targeting non-perishable foods and items for babies, said Viviene Reid. The Jamaica Foundation of Houston has launched a drive to raise US$150,000 on its website. A fund-raising event, The Houston Hurricane Relief Drive for Jamaica is set for this Saturday, November 8, 2025.

Aeon Mitchell of the UNNA said the focus of the assistance from his association will be on the needs of people in South Manchester, noting that the organisation has been supporting charitable causes in the area for several years.

Dr Cecil Wright, the president of the St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) Alumni Association said that the organisation might have to look beyond just helping the school because of the enormity of the damage to St Elizabeth as a whole.

Dr Francis said his foundation was working with several organisations including the Rise of Christ Church in Silver Spring, Maryland to source food, blankets, generators, tarpaulins, medical supplies and tools.

A Global Empowerment Mission truck in Doral, Florida, packed and ready to take food packages for a flight to Jamaica.

Boxes which will be packed with relief food items being readied by Jamaican volunteers for flights on the Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), a non-profit charity organisation.

Miss Universe Haiti Melissa Sapini jokes with Desmond Allen, founding editor of the Jamaica Observer about changing her name from Melissa, the name of the hurricane which devastated their two countries last week. Sapini and Allen were among volunteers who assisted in preparing food packages destined for hurricane victims in impacted Caribbean islands.