Hurricane Melissa’s Aftermath
Lives were spared but homes, livelihoods, and communities were shattered. Our brothers and sisters in Jamaica still need our prayers and our help.
Read Time: 1 minute
Two weeks after Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean, we’re still receiving initial contact from brothers and sisters in Jamaica who have been cut off since the category 5 storm damaged roads and disrupted essential services all across the island. With communication so limited, our priority has been to get updates on everyone’s immediate well-being and to answer the fear in the minds of all those with loved ones in the storm’s path: “Did they survive this monster?”
Thanks be to God for preserving the lives of His children—we’ve learned of no loss of life among the believers.
As more people regain their ability to connect online each day, we now turn our attention to what comes next and how to help our brothers, sisters, and young people recover from the devastation. All three island nations of Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba suffered terrible impacts from the storm, with entire towns flattened and infrastructure destroyed. They face a grueling road back to normality, especially for those living where the worst effects were felt. The storm took livelihoods and schools, grocery stores and banks, and well over a hundred thousand roofs in Jamaica alone. Our brothers and sisters were sheltering beneath some of these roofs when they were ripped away, and several believers’ homes were completely destroyed, along with all of their possessions. Their lives are shattered.
We’re still in the information-gathering stage as to the extent of the damage. And while we don’t know at this stage what the final dollar amount for helping our brothers and sisters impacted by this storm will be, we know it will be significant.
Please, we need your help. We are asking for your prayers to our Heavenly Father to continue to watch over our brethren in need. We are also appealing to the brotherhood in North America for donations to help these dear, faithful brothers and sisters in Christ as they work so hard to rebuild their lives.
Nathan and Antonia Giordano,
CBMC Links for Jamaica