UK aid for Hurricane Melissa reaches Jamaica as Britons have to evacuate

A British aid flight arrived in Jamaica early on Saturday to help with recovery efforts after Hurricane Melissa, while the UK plans its first chartered flight to bring British nationals home later on Saturday.

The relief flight brought more than 3,000 emergency shelter kits as part of a £7.5 million regional emergency package.

Some of the funding will be used to match public donations of up to £1m for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent – with King Charles and Queen Camilla among those who have donated.

Despite aid arriving in Jamaica in recent days, fallen trees and landslides have complicated distribution after Hurricane Melissa devastated parts of the island, killing at least 19 people.

The hurricane made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category Five storm and was one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the Caribbean.

Melissa swept across the region for several days and left behind a trail of destruction and dozens of dead people. At least 30 people died in Haiti, while floods and landslides also hit Cuba.

Jamaica’s Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon said on Friday that “there are whole communities that seem to be left behind and areas that seem to be leveled.”

The UK has initially earmarked a £2.5m package of immediate financial support, with an additional £5m announced by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on Friday.

Cooper said the announcement came as “more information is now coming in about the extent of the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, with homes damaged, roads blocked and lives lost”.

The British Red Cross said the King and Queen’s donation will help the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) “continue its life-saving work” – which includes search and rescue efforts in Jamaica, as well as providing access to healthcare, safe shelter and clean water.

The Red Cross said Saturday morning that 72 percent of people in Jamaica were still without electricity and about 6,000 were in emergency shelters.

Until the Jamaican government can get the damaged power grid back up and running, any generator assistance agencies can distribute will be vital.

The same goes for tarps, given the scale of the housing crisis.

Meanwhile, with so many in need of clean drinking water and basic food, patience is running out and there are more reports of desperate people entering supermarkets to gather and hand out whatever food they can find.

The BBC saw queues at petrol pumps, with people waiting for hours only to be told there was no fuel left when they got to the front of the queue.

Some people are looking for fuel for generators, others for a car to get to an area where they can connect with people, with power out across most of the island.

The country’s health minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, on Saturday described “significant damage” at a number of hospitals – with Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth the worst affected.

“For now, this facility will have to be completely relocated in terms of services,” he said.

“The immediate challenge for affected hospitals is to maintain accident and emergency services,” Dr Tufton added. “What we’re seeing is that a lot of people are coming into these facilities now with trauma (injuries) from falling off the roof, down stairs, to nails going into their feet.”

The minister said arrangements have been made for ongoing fuel supply to the facilities as well as “daily water supply”.

Although aid is pouring into the country, landslides, downed power lines and fallen trees have made some roads impassable.

However, some of the hardest hit areas of Jamaica should finally get some relief in the coming hours.

At least one aid organization, the Global Empowerment Mission, left Kingston this morning in a convoy of seven trucks to Black River, the hard-hit town in western Jamaica, carrying relief packages assembled by volunteers from the Jamaican diaspora community in Florida.

Aid is also coming from other humanitarian groups and foreign governments via helicopters.

Only a fraction of what the affected communities need remains, but authorities insist there will be more soon.

Around 8,000 British nationals are believed to have been on the island when the hurricane hit.

The UK’s first chartered flight to bring British nationals home is due to leave Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport late on Saturday.

The UK Foreign Office has asked travelers to register their presence on the island.

The department also advises passengers to contact their airline to check if trade-in options are available.