The challenge of cleaning up Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica is ‘overwhelming’, says Sean Paul

Jamaican music superstar Sean Paul said the scale of the effort needed to help people in the country was “immense” after Hurricane Melissa devastated parts of the island last week.

The Grammy-winning reggae singer said the Category Five storm was “very scary, especially for my little kids.”

“It’s the first time they’ve seen trees dance like that and the wind move like that,” he told BBC News. “They are still in shock and traumatized. And can you imagine the children who are at the epicenter of this? It feels like the Middle Ages.”

Winds of up to 185 mph (295 km/h) caused at least 28 deaths. Paul and his family were in the capital, Kingston, while areas further west suffered the worst damage.

The singer said: “It’s really hard to take. We didn’t get hit very hard in Kingston, but it was scary. And you wonder every moment if there’s going to be, you know, some tree that’s going to come and knock your roof off?

“This is what happened to friends of mine in Montego Bay. They lost their entire roof and they’re still in the trenches helping people out there, making sure food gets to (people) and clothes get to (people). Everyone’s stuff is dirty and it’s hard to think of anything positive right now.”

Paul pledged $50,000 (£38,000) in matching donations to Food For The Poor Jamaica and described the devastation as a “very mind-boggling situation”.

“After days and days of communication and trying to help in various ways, on Saturday I broke down,” he said.

“It’s just the amount of energy it takes and the depression that starts to set in, and then you have to shake it off because there’s so much to do that we haven’t even tipped the iceberg yet.”

He continued: “It’s amazing. I walked over to the country myself yesterday, St. Mary’s Province, which wasn’t hit as hard, but it’s still hit. They still don’t have light and a lot of people there can’t even see what’s going on because after they charge their phone, they’re just trying to call loved ones to make sure they’re OK.”

Some people “don’t even know that people are helping them because most of the time they don’t get to see these videos of people preparing things to send out there,” he said.

“And so little has actually been given out… There are still areas that are blocked, roads that are damaged.

“I just heard a story about 15 babies who were under three months old but are now sleeping in cardboard boxes. So it’s a terrible situation and we’re trying to get help out there as much as possible.”

Another Jamaican music star, Shaggy, is also coordinating relief efforts on the island, delivering essentials to locals in small convoys.

Asked how he felt about what happened, he said: “Devastated. I don’t think I can unsee what I’ve seen… It’s hard, a lot of help is coming.

“Nobody can really prepare for something like this.

“We got to the Black River area, which was hit really hard. Everything is flattened. It breaks my heart. I couldn’t help but cry. These are my people.”

He added: “I’ve never seen anything like it, it looks like a bomb went off.”

Sean Paul said: “Shaggy contacted me, a friend of mine in the business, and he’s trying to do a concert in December. It’s a long-term thing, so we don’t want to do it next week where nobody knows about it. It has to be down the road where we can promote it.”