'Whole towns destroyed' - Irish woman in Jamaica fundraising for Hurricane Melissa aftermath

An Irish woman who has made her home in Jamaica has launched a fundraising effort to help those whose lives have been devastated by Hurricane Melissa.

Orlagh Kilbride, 45, who is originally from Dublin, has been living in Jamaica for almost a decade, and described her heartbreak at the hurricane which lashed the island last week.

At least 19 people have been killed in the chaos brought by the category five storm, one of the most powerful ever measured in the Caribbean.

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Ms Kilbride said they were the strongest winds she had ever seen, and she counted herself very lucky that Kingston, where she lives, did not bear the brunt of it.

But she said people were traumatised in the south and north west of the island, where some towns were destroyed and scores of people left homeless.

“The beaches have completely eroded all the way up to the buildings,” she told the PA news agency.

“We’ve had friends, that their buildings that were close to the beach and just collapsed. A lot of roof damage in that area as well, wooden structures just completely destroyed.

“If you had a wooden structure, that was never going to survive any kind of wind, particularly these kinds of winds.

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“I spoke to somebody the other day, and they basically said that, you know, even in a developed country, buildings would struggle with 300km winds.

“There’s been whole towns just completely destroyed, and I’m not sure some of them will ever come back.

“There’s about 30,000 people homeless, so just trying to get people back on their feet, that’s what we’re trying to get the funds in for.”

Ms Kilbride said it was much less severe in Kingston.

“Although it was very strong for us it was nothing compared to what they actually had. They were worlds apart,” she said.

“The winds were loud, we did experience a lot of leaks, we lost a tree in our back garden. There were a lot of trees in our neighbourhood that came down.

“We’re in a newer house so I knew our house was going to be fine, so I wasn’t fearful for our family, but we know a lot of people in St Elizabeth so we were worried for them.”

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Ms Kilbride said she has come to love the island and its people, and was heartbroken to see people who have lost everything they had.

She said there was a strong connection with Ireland, with 30% claiming Irish heritage, adding that, like the Irish, they love music, are funny, and know how to have a good party, some of the reasons her family fell in love with their new home.

“This community in the south had just bounced back from a hurricane last year. It’s really unprecedented for an island to get a hurricane year on year, like it just doesn’t exist,” she said.

“So there was a huge amount of fundraising done last year, and pretty much all of that work has been wiped away. So we’re back to square one again, and the communities need even more help than they did before.

“We’ve set up the GoFundMe, and I’m going to distribute whatever we make to two local local charities, and the Red Cross as well, because I know that these are reliable, so that we know that the money is going to the right people and for the right things, for food, for supplies and people will need building materials to try and get their homes back.”

Her fundraising page can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/dcxtae-help-jamaica-recover-from-hurricane-melissa.