'We need water and food': Miami aid group says Jamaica is desperate for more help

Tons of donations packed and shipped from Miami have been arriving in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa devastated much of the island, leaving at least 32 dead and over a million people desperate for food and water.

But it’s not enough.

“It’s a Hurricane Maria, an Irma and a Dorian all compounded,” said Michael Capponi, the CEO of Miami-based disaster relief nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), while in Kingston. “The destruction looks like some parts in Gaza today.”

GEM has been at the epicenter of South Florida donation drives and support efforts for Jamaica and works closely with other international organizations, Jamaican aid groups and Jamaican authorities to distribute donations. In the days before Melissa made landfall on Oct. 28 as a historic category 5 storm, GEM had been collecting, packing and preparing donations to be transported as soon as possible.

Capponi told the Herald that GEM had the first cargo plane land in Jamaica as soon as the airport opened, with four more arriving since then. Royal Caribbean, in partnership with GEM, is sending a ship carrying aid that will arrive in Jamaica Tuesday, Capponi said. By then, GEM would have brought over 1,000 pallets, over a million pounds, of aid into Jamaica.

But distributing the aid has been extremely challenging. Roads are either destroyed or blocked by traffic or debris, and several parts of the island are entirely inaccessible. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday that “logistics continue to pose major challenges.” Unlike the United States, Jamaica lacks significant infrastructure to deal with the aftermath of a hurricane of this scale.

On top of that, Capponi said, the need far exceeds the amount of supplies currently available in Jamaica.

“I’m now 100% convinced that all the aid coming from all the aid groups combined will not even be a quarter of what’s needed,” Capponi said. “Here, you have a situation with way over a million people that are hungry and starving. You have an impending secondary disaster that is unfolding as we speak right now, and it will probably get much, much worse throughout this week and next week.”

GEM brought supplies to Black River, a coastal town hit directly by Melissa, though the trip took a long time because of the extreme traffic and infrastructure damage, Capponi said. GEM team members then went to a town called Lacovia. Initially, 500 people were there to receive supplies, he said. After just 20 minutes, the crowd ballooned to 1,500 people.

“That raised an alarm for me,” Capponi said. The desperation is palpable, he said. Members of a Jamaican group GEM works told him their aid truck was “completely attacked” just yesterday.

Food and generators are the absolute biggest need, he said. The U.S. State Department, through United Nations agencies, has sent about 600 pallets of “very good aid,” including hygiene kits and generators, he said. The U.S. also deployed a regional Disaster Assistance Response Team, including urban search-and-rescue teams, to assess needs and provide search and recovery assistance.

Charity group Good360 also donated generators that the Jamaican military is taking into mountainous regions still without power. Capponi is calling on food distributors and wholesalers to make donations before the circumstances get even more dire.

Jamaica’s Minister of Energy, Transportation and Telecommunications, Daryl Vaz, said that the country’s international airports have been receiving a record-breaking number of flights; on Saturday alone Kingston’s airport received 77 flights, 30 of which were filled with aid for distribution.

“The relief flights are coming in fast and furious and there’s no shortage of supplies in terms of getting supplies into Jamaica for distribution for humanitarian efforts,” he said in a press conference on Monday. But he admitted that distribution has been a challenge and that they have been leaning on charities with more expertise in disaster relief to improve their systems. “We are taking good advice from international charities in terms of how we can streamline and make it seamless, not only for the receipt but the distribution of hurricane relief items,” he said.

He asked for patience. “We need all Jamaica to be a part if we are going to be successful.”

A video shared by GEM shows the high level of need in Jamaica as droves of people wait for aid. Jamaicans share harrowing stories of narrowly surviving the hurricane and losing their homes. Supermarkets on the island are either out of stock or were destroyed by the storm.

“We need water and food right now,” said one woman in the video. “The sea take all of my house. I don’t have anywhere to sleep right now.”

In South Florida, several organizations and municipalities are still collecting donations. The Miami Dolphins are hosting a donation drive at Hard Rock Stadium on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Requested items at all donation drives include nonperishable food, bottled water, first aid kits, toiletries, batteries, flashlights, generators, work gloves, yard equipment, chainsaws, sleeping bags, portable radios, water filters and tarps. (Donation drives will not accept used clothing or linens.)

Cash donations of any amount are also heavily encouraged to help pay for transportation costs. People can sign up on GEM’s website to volunteer to pack donation boxes.

_____