Jamaicans in Winnipeg keep eye on homeland; fear for loved ones

Deleene Clarke was in Winnipeg Tuesday afternoon, but her mind was set on her home town of Santa Cruz, Jamaica, where her parents were bracing themselves against raging wind and floodwater as hurricane Melissa delivered mass destruction to the island.

“I’m concerned, but I believe they are somewhat safe, if the house doesn’t tear down,” Clarke said about her 76-year-old father and mother, 71.

“I don’t think they were prepared by this level of what’s happening.”

Reports from Jamaica were grim Tuesday as the hurricane made landfall on the island’s southwestern shore, trapping families in their homes in the coastal community of Black River.

Clarke’s parents, who live less than 20 kilometres northeast of Black River, were similarly stuck as storm surge swamped the roads and left them no route to evacuate. By 1:30 p.m. (central time), the water levels rose to 76 centimetres deep inside their home, and they had retreated to the second storey to take cover, she said.

Black River, which is the capital of St. Elizabeth parish, known as the country’s bread basket, was hit hard. The community’s only hospital had a section of its roof damaged. Video shown on Jamaican TV showed houses without roofs, downed hydro poles and trees; debris was piled high on streets.

The violent weather made it difficult to communicate with them from Canada, but other relatives assured Clarke her parents were safe as they waited out the storm.

The Jamaican coast, and its people, are no strangers to hurricanes, but few people anticipated the ferocity with which Melissa hit, Clarke said.

“It’s going to be hard to put things back together,” she said. “I’m just hopeful that nobody gets hurt.

Back in Winnipeg, Jamaican Association of Manitoba president Shemar Barnes spent the morning on the phone with Marsha Coore Lobban, Jamaica’s High Commissioner-designate to Canada. At least two or three members from the Manitoba association are in Jamaica weathering the storm, he said.

“We’ve been getting some information from our high commissioner, from the government of Jamaica, and we’ve been encouraging folks that are in Jamaica to register themselves with the Government of Canada,” Barnes said.

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“There is a lot of nervousness because this is probably the worst storm that will ever hit Jamaica, so we are not sure what to expect. Everybody has been reaching out to their families, their friends, their loved ones.”

Barnes was one of several association leaders across Canada working with government consuls to co-ordinate donations of food, water, hygiene products and money to the island.

He urged his fellow Manitobans to support relief efforts, if possible, noting the Jamaican government has established a website to gather donations.

“Jamaica is going to need all the help to rebuild,” he said. “We know how to be a community and we know how to look out for each other. I know this is going to be a lot of devastation, but we are going to build back — and built back better,” Barnes said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.