Photo courtesy of Matthew Restrepo.
Students react to the aftermath and make donations after seeing the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.
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By Matthew Restrepo
TAMPA, Fla. – Imahni Linton comforted her younger sibling on the phone from Jamaica. Her sibling was scared of thunder, lightning and the dark during the night of intense weather. Around 3 a.m., they hung up, and the two went to sleep.
Linton is a senior at the University of Tampa from Kingston, Jamaica, studying biology on the pre-med track. She started raising money and supplies for those in her home country for her grandfather who passed away before the hurricane.
Her grandfather came from a part of the island that was hit hard by the storm. She is giving back to the community in memory of him.
Donations for Linton’s cause filled a table in Room 103 of Grand Center. Items such as toiletries, non-perishable goods and more were donated. Cash donations are also accepted.
Hurricane Melissa struck the Caribbean on Oct. 28, leaving destruction in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas.
After the storm hit these islands, people from all over the world have worked to help those who were impacted.
Linton recently went back to Jamaica and saw a torn-up life in the west.
Photo courtesy of Imahni Linton.
As Linton traveled throughout the country, there was motionless water, power lines flowing through fallen trees and debris stretching along the road. During her journey, she also saw dead cows.
On different days, she went by car with family and by bus with many others. With her family, they delivered many yellow bags and more than 50 cases of water. Some held clothes for men and women, while others for mothers and children.
The bus also contained the same yellow bags and many cases of water.
Photo courtesy of Imahni Linton.
She said they focused on helping people in rural areas because they were not getting as much help.
Damion Martin, a well-known resident in Saint Elizabeth, took Linton to rural areas where aid had not been given yet.
“You had persons crying, saying that we were the first persons to come to their area to give them some type of relief,” said Linton.
Sometimes, detours had to be made because of flooded and destroyed roads. At one area, drivers had to find a way around because of a pothole with cracks spreading from it.
Linton said that, because there is still water, people are worried about disease.
While giving out donations in her community, Linton met a man who was sleeping outside his damaged home.
“I met a guy while donating and he was begging us for some type of jacket or blanket because he was sleeping outside. He was just sleeping on the zinc on the outside of his house because he had nothing else to sleep on,” said Linton.
In some places, they had to walk, and others, roads were blocked because of objects.
“It was a very emotional experience going back and seeing the state of my country. It’s definitely more catastrophic in person than in videos,” said Linton. “Videos don’t really do it much justice.”
Linton is collaborating with her best friend, Rachael Foote from Jamaica, who is a second-year medical student at the University of the West Indies (UWI).
Foote started collecting money after she saw her sister’s post on Instagram that she was taking donations, so Foote wanted to follow in her footsteps.
Foote also went around donating goods. She plans to go to the area again in December.
“While we were driving down there, we could see like mothers with children in their hands, pregnant mothers, pregnant women, just waiting, hoping that somebody would give them some sort of aid,” said Foote.
Foote and the others she was with would give those people aid if they saw them. She heard from a man that the roof came off his house while he was inside.
Linton is not the only UTampa student from Jamaica to go back. Kaian Clarke is a freshman from Jamaica and took donations back.
She felt sad but saw how optimistic the people were.
“So many communities around the most affected areas had nothing, had no help at all, so yeah, it was definitely social media versus reality for me,” said Clarke.
When she was at an airport in Jamaica, she said she felt scared because part of the roof was missing. The airport also lacked electricity.
Closer to St. Elizabeth, she saw dead animals, zinc roofs on the ground and houses torn apart.
Clarke was introduced to Linton shortly before the hurricane through a friend. Like Linton, she did not want to sit back; she wanted to help.
She is helping Linton because she believes teamwork will lead to greater improvement.
Imahni Linton and Rachael Foote have raised $3,000 along with many essential items. Struggles remain throughout the Caribbean.
Five hospitals have faced large amounts of damage in Jamaica. The Black River hospital is the only one not operable.
There has been around $10 billion worth of damage, with the country saving only about $500 million.
Cuba had no deaths but suffered the most damage to shelters with 2,065 affected, and health facilities with 642. Much of Cuba still remains without power.
Cuba is facing even more problems since Hurricane Melissa hit the country. There are animals that have created bad odors and a need for resources.
Haiti is in a similar situation where it lacks many supplies and only has funding for 21% of the $908 million for the humanitarian plan.
Many donations have been made to the affected countries.
With the large amount of damage to their country, the students’ goal is to continue fundraising money and items for the people affected by the storm in Jamaica.