I just sent this update to the wonderful people who have donated to my appeal for Montego Bay in the wake of Hurricane Melissa. If you’ve been in one, you’ll know that the real intense damage has only just begun the day the hurricane hits. EIGHT YEARS after Harvey, some destroyed homes still line the route into town from the airport.
I wanted to share some very specific purchases and some items on our current to-do list. Along with some more general thoughts:
Hello Everyone,
I’m so touched by all of your incredible work on this very direct and tangible fundraiser. It’s already helping people on the ground.
We’ve managed to purchase FOUR SOLAR GENERATORS, and ship them to Montego Bay. These are just starting to arrive. Pictures soon!
We have also ordered TWO PORTABLE CHARGERS which arrived in Montego Bay on Monday. We’re going to order some more. Pictures forthcoming!
We have also begun to order SATELLITE PHONE services. These take the form of an account that can be added to an existing mobile phone, and a separate, dedicated phone. We’ll be sure to have our recipients send us some stuff we can see so you can know your incredible input is helping the Montego Bay community as soon as possible.
We’ve sent Mommy some funds to help with cleanup and logistics in her home. We are also planning to get her a new fridge. Her old one was VERY old and the hurricane totally destroyed it. Her washer was nearly broken last time I checked (I last visited in late 2023), and the hurricane has destroyed that too.
When we reach our new goal of $16,000, we will be able to order TWO more generators, add TWO more satellite phones and SEVERAL more portable chargers. At least! We will keep you updated.
Longer-term. My brother in law Richard, who is still quite substantially larger than me, both in soul and in body, has totally lost his car. It was probably washed away in the incredible mud-filled storm surge that went as high as some people’s chests as it swept through the part of Montego Bay nearest the shore...where my family lives.
Cars cost TWICE as much in Jamaica as they cost in the USA, would you believe. James Baldwin put it this way: “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor” (Nobody Knows My Name, 1961). So this is a big item which we have started to think about. We will need several thousand dollars for the downpayment and are taking that into account as we work on getting other types of resources.
Shorter-term: effective, portable, composting toilets. This is just terrible but there is STILL no water in Montego Bay. It’s just so incredibly nasty and sad to think about. My nephew Rejean (13) has gone from prioritizing gaming to prioritizing washing, and he’s ready to give up electricity altogether if it meant having the water back.
The big picture: Reuters just reported that Jamaica faces a $9.5 BILLION shortfall to handle this hurricane. They saved up huge big money to deal with stuff after Beryl hit (a 4! just last year!) but it’s nowhere near enough. Others estimated that recovery from Melissa will now cost over the TOTAL GDP of Jamaica. So how on earth are they going to do it.
These numbers are too big for me, too big for anyone really unless their name is Bezos or Musk. I was thinking we should call a billion dollars a Bezo (like a Peso). In that case healing Jamaica would cost nine-and-a-half Bezos. Now that doesn’t sound too bad.
I’m asking a lot of people to donate. Some people aren’t. I got a very weird text saying that the person had no time to think about donating, and no inclination to. The language was very psychological: “I have minimal functioning and outward attention at the moment.” Because of surgery. And therefore I imagine anesthetic and what’s more, Fentanyl (which I was given when I had major surgery in 2023). The irony (not very fun irony) was that the person had enough attention to compose this carefully worded paraphrase of “I’m really high and don’t want to blow it on thinking about this.” Yeah, I’m kinda mad.
But YOU didn’t do that. You stopped what you were doing, reached for your wallet and actually did a thing. Bless you. It’s amazing. It’s touching. It’s so good.
I’m attaching a photo of happier days, when Treena created things on the little school blackboard like this. It’s so touching.
I’m also attaching the most recent video footage I can find (from two days ago) about relief operations in Montego Bay.
And I’ll close with these words from Jamaican Cabinet Minister Matthew Samuda at COP30 in Belem, Brazil (November 18):
“We don’t come as mendicants. We come as victims of the actions of others,” Samuda said in an interview at the summit, referring to the fact Jamaica has done little to cause the planet-warming emissions that are driving climate change.
[He said Jamaica had spent three decades improving its financial health and inching closer to an investment grade credit rating.]
“To have quite a bit of that success wiped out in a single 24-hour period by a storm that was stronger, lasted longer, came at a time of year that is unusual and brought more rain than usual because of the actions of others, is a difficult pill to swallow.”
Thank you so much. I wish I could hug you. It’s heartbreaking what’s happened and I’m so glad to know others really care about this. Tell your friends! Tell your family!
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