Philly’s Jamaican community is rushing to help after Hurricane Melissa

Ever since Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history hit Jamaica this week, Michelle Tulloch-Neil said she has felt numb.

“I cannot focus on me, I’m in a better position than a lot of people. I have to put that aside from now,” the Northeast Philly resident said.

Tulloch-Neil, a member of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council, an organization working to build collaboration between Jamaicans worldwide, migrated from the Caribbean island over 30 years ago. She is one of about 9,300 Philadelphians who were born in Jamaica, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

She and other members of Philadelphia’s Jamaican community have been rallying to support the small country however they can, despite their anxiety and uncertainty about what is happening some 1,500 miles away. She is helping coordinate donation drives at over a dozen churches and other drop off centers throughout the Philly region.

“People are just in awe, disbelief,” she said about those she’s heard from in Jamaica.

The category 5 storm hit Jamaica’s southern and western coasts on Tuesday, with 185 mph winds and rainfall that was expected to reach up to 40 inches. Officials said Thursday that five people had been confirmed dead, but cautioned that more casualties were likely to be confirmed in the coming days. Over three-quarters of the island was without power on the morning after the hurricane made landfall, thousands were displaced, and areas were completely destroyed.

“Jamaica is really broken because of what has happened,” Jamaica’s education Minister Dana Morris Dixon said this week.

The storm has since moved through Haiti, Cuba, and the other parts of the Caribbean.

“Everybody is concerned, everybody is worried,” said Christopher Chaplin, Jamaica’s honorary consul in Philadelphia, and a Montgomery County resident.

He said that it’s been hard to get in contact with people in Jamaica, since internet and telephone services have been severely damaged. But the consulate was also working on collecting donations of things people will need in the immediate future.

Tulloch-Neil and Chaplin are coordinating donation drives at a number of locations in the Philadelphia area, including:

They are asking for items like first aid kits, batteries, flashlights, garbage bags, gloves, and generators. Cash or checks will be accepted, too.

“We’ll get it to Jamaica,” Tulloch-Neil said.

Other national organizations collecting aid for Jamaica include:

Chaplin said he’s been grateful for all of the people who have reached out offering their aid and support. That has included people without direct roots to Jamaica too, like a woman who called him because she and her husband regularly visited Negril on Jamaica’s west coast for vacation over the years.

Tulloch-Neil’s brother, who lives in Jamaica and is there now, told her that he’s never seen people coming together like he has over the past few days. In the United States, too, she said she is constantly getting calls from people asking how they can help.

“One thing we are is a resilient people. We will bounce back,” she said.