It's been about three weeks since Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica. And despite the Outer Cape's best efforts to support those impacted by the storm, the road to recovery will be a long one.
That's according to Jack Styler of the Provincetown Independent.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with Jack recently to learn more.
Gilda Geist For those who aren't familiar, what historical, economic and social drivers contribute to the presence of a Jamaican community on the Outer Cape?
Jack Styler There have been longstanding populations of people coming from Jamaica to the Outer Cape for seasonal work. And of course, some people who started coming seasonally have laid down roots in the Outer Cape and told people back home about the Outer Cape. I talked to Pastor David Brown of the predominantly Jamaican congregation at the Pond Village Community Chapel in Truro, and he noted that the Jamaican population really makes up a large part of the workforce on the Outer Cape, and that there is an organic network of people from areas of Jamaica, especially St. Elizabeth's, Westmoreland, and the Manchester parishes who have told neighbors back home, friends back home, family members back home about work opportunities on the Outer Cape. And because of that sort of organic network, there has become this very strong bond between the Outer Cape and those western parishes of Jamaica, which were the ones hit especially hard by Hurricane Melissa.
GG You spoke to Jamaicans on the Outer Cape who lost things in this hurricane—homes, businesses, access to basic human needs. What did they tell you about what it's like on the ground there?
JS Well, when I spoke to several people who were on the ground in those western parishes of Jamaica—especially coming from towns like Black River or White House that were right in the middle of the hurricane—they said that the devastation is just immense, that they are basically starting over. Many people lost houses. There's very little infrastructure left in towns like Black River, where grocery stores, gas stations, hospitals were almost completely wiped out by this really devastating hurricane that was one of the most intense hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic.
GG How has the Outer Cape community been stepping up to support those impacted by Hurricane Melissa?
JS There have been a lot of efforts by local businesses and other community leaders to try to raise money or do food drives or supply drives to send to Jamaica. Last week, Sunday, there was a large fundraiser at Hog Island Beer in Orleans that raised $25,000 and was sponsored by 20 local businesses. There have also been donation efforts from restaurants like the Brickhouse in Eastham, and Stop and Shop, as well as several GoFundMe pages that have raised over $100,000 collectively for these Jamaican communities where so many people on the Outer Cape have connections to. Unfortunately, that sounds like it will be just a drop in the bucket, because current estimates for the damages done to Jamaica are immense. It depends on what source you go off, but the sources I've seen have put the cost of the damages at around $8 billion. And so while the Outer Cape community has really stepped up and rallied around its Jamaican population, it will take years of rebuilding and years of fundraising to get these communities back to where they were before this storm.
GG Is there anything else you wanted to add?
JS I would just emphasize the the human cost of this storm. This storm was on the front page of newspapers across the the country and really across the world for about one day. It will take an extremely long time for these towns to come back. And I spoke to several people who worried that because these towns have been so completely devastated by this storm, that there's a question of what version or what type of town will really come out of this rebuilding process. If they're starting from the ground up, will that push out longstanding populations who have lived in in these towns their whole lives? Will people be priced out if new buildings go up? So, finding a way to make this equitable and then finding a way to make sure that the Outer Cape community can support these towns that have such a strong connection to this place in the most effective way possible will be something that we're going to be looking forward to covering in the next few months and really the next few years to come.
For more information, check out Jack's full story in the Provincetown Independent.
