Just In Time

Anthony Anderson stood atop a pile of rubble as he recounted the long, terrifying hours of Hurricane Melissa’s landfall in southwestern Jamaica. That same pile, where he’d returned to salvage what he could, had been his home in Black River before the Category 5 storm reduced it to splinters and into a crushing prison where he thought he’d pray and breathe his last.

“I counted myself a dead man,” he said.

He was pinned down by wood planks and heavy chunks of concrete as the storm roared. When the sky turned silent again, he grew desperate to escape.

“When I called for help there was no one to hear me,” Anthony said. “I said to myself, ‘If I stay here, I’ll die.’”

Then he saw a sliver of sunlight through the layers of heavy debris and began digging. He calls his survival a miracle.

“I should have needed a hammer or crowbars,” he said. “I only had my arms, and that’s why I think it must have been God Himself. God gave me extra strength that day.”

As he emerged, bruised and cut up, his community had been transformed into a miles-long debris field. Homes were gone. The local hospital was destroyed. He talked to others with the same look of shock that he was feeling.

Fellow residents described not knowing where to begin to put their hometown back together. In this hard-hit area of southwest Jamaica, the destruction is so complete that it makes it hard to catch your breath. Some neighbourhoods were only accessible by boat after the storm.

A majority of the western portions of the island are still without power or access to clean water.

“The saying goes ‘to pick up the pieces,’” one survivor said, “but here, there are no pieces to pick up.”

Anthony continues to remind himself and others in his community that God is still at work: “When God is in the midst, all things are possible.”

A Supply Chain of Relief in Jesus’ Name

Samaritan’s Purse has been responding to Jamaica since Melissa struck, and we are establishing relief efforts in Black River and other communities.

Four airlifts have carried more than 100 tons of relief to the island. In addition to household kits, we are establishing an Emergency Field Hospital, setting up community water filtration systems, and providing household water filtration.

We are working alongside community and church leaders to identify needs and provide supplies to hurting people.

Pastor Steve Hepburn was reeling when he arrived with two other leaders of New Testament Church at our first distribution on Jamaica. Residents, he said, have faced things they’ve never faced.

“Our church people and community folks are distraught. They are in a state they’ve never been in before,” he said.

Pastor Hepburn and leaders from his church were among scores of local church leaders who came to gather supplies from Samaritan’s Purse. Through the provision of 1,300 household kits, area churches are able to meet needs as families face heat and rain and nights without electricity. Each household kit includes shelter tarp, household water filters, and solar lights.

Many churches on Jamaica are connected with Samaritan’s Purse through Operation Christmas Child and through our response on the island after Hurricane Beryl last year.

“Samaritan’s Purse has come just in time,” Pastor Hepburn said. “You were here last year during Hurricane Beryl and you have been here many other times. You are touching lives. Pray that the hand of God will continue to rest upon our nation as we go through this,” he said.

Alric Brown, who serves with Pastor Hepburn, shared a similar heart-breaking story of whole communities that became homeless overnight as Hurricane Melissa churned along the western part of the island in violent winds and torrential rains. He was also praising God.

“We’re giving thanks that there aren’t more lives lost from this storm,” he said.

Shana Barnett, who works locally with Samaritan’s Purse church partners through Operation Christmas Child, said she is grateful for God’s protection and His provision through our relief operations.

“We will rebuild. We will become stronger—the Lord is with us,” she said. “He has spared our lives so my prayer is really that the people will see that there is hope. They’re not alone at all. Samaritan’s Purse is equipping pastors to reach their communities and share Jesus Christ with them.”