When Suzie-Ann Douglas saw images of rooftops ripped off homes and hospitals across Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa, she couldn’t stop crying.
“My first emotion when I saw the snippets of the roof that came off the hospital in St. Elizabeth, tears came to my eye immediately, and I immediately picked up the phone to call my sister-in-law that’s there to see if they were okay,” she said. “They told me that their roof was leaking. So the tears just kept on flowing down. And then to hear that the airports — that no one can go in and out — it’s overwhelming for me.”
For Douglas, who has lived in New York for more than 30 years, the heartbreak quickly turned into action. She and her husband Collin Douglas own The Original Dumpling Shop in the Baychester section of the Bronx. Their restaurant, which is usually packed with customers wanting a taste of authentic Jamaican food, is now filled with water, first aid kits and sanitary pads as it’s doubling as a donation site for relief supplies in collaboration with the JAHJAH Foundation — short for Jamaicans Abroad Helping Jamaicans at Home. Items being collected include canned goods, clothing, and personal hygiene products.
“The intent is to send a container of supplies to Jamaica based on the volume that we get next month to help in the aid,” said Douglas. “We also opened up a GoFundMe page to collect monetary donations to also help because we see that, based on speaking to people there, the disaster and devastation is much greater than that we are seeing here on the news.”
Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm, struck Jamaica earlier last week with winds topping 185 mph — among the strongest on record. Jamaican officials confirmed the storm left at least 28 people dead. In Melissa’s wake, entire communities have been flooded, and as of Saturday, government officials estimate that roughly 7,000 people have been displaced.
New York is home to one of the largest Jamaican communities outside of the Caribbean, with nearly 195,000 people living here, especially in the Bronx and Brooklyn. For many in the diaspora, the storm felt both far away and close to their hearts.
“A bunch of people are without homes. Their beds are wet. The roofs are off the building, there’s no electricity right now,” Douglas said. “There’s some families who can’t get in contact with a family member because there’s no cell service. People are saying that because of the hurricane that was coming, they spent their lives just for some preparation and now they have no money after the hurricane.”
Across New York, other Jamaicans are also stepping up. Rich Williams, the owner and CEO of Lovers Rock Sea Moss,a Brooklyn-based company selling Caribbean-sourced sea moss gel,says he immediately felt a familiar concern when he heard the storm was approaching.
“My first thoughts about Hurricane Melissa was that it really reminded me of what happened when the last category five, Hurricane Gilbert, happened, back in the ‘80s,” he said. “I was still a kid, but I had a lot of family out there, and they were extremely affected by it. And so the first thought that popped in my head was definitely a fear.”
Born in New York to Jamaican parents, Williams holds dual citizenship and says his connection to the island is deeply rooted. He had been in Jamaica just months ago for a film festival in Black River — one of the towns now devastated by flooding.
“Just to see how the roads that I traveled down are like completely wiped out, everything is gone is just shocking,” he said. “I felt so sad and so just devastated.”
In response, Williams decided to turn his business into a vehicle for relief. He’s donating all of this week’s sales from Lovers Rock Sea Moss to a charity called Food for the Poor Jamaica, which works to mobilize food distribution and shelter on the ground.
“I wanted to make sure that I not just bring awareness to the devastation that happened, but also give people something that they can see from their purchases,” he explained. For him, it’s not just about the donations. It’s also about unity.
“‘Out of many, one people’ is the country motto. So I wanted to be able to just help out my people, help my country, help the place that my family’s from,” he said. “It’s helping people that are literally devastated and lost everything. We got to help each other and we got to make sure that we show up in times where and when we can.”
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And for Douglas, giving back isn’t new. It’s part of how she has always done business.
“We love giving back, not only to disaster, but it’s something that we have been doing as business owners,” she said. “We love to give back to the people that keep our doors open, because every year for the past three years, we give away free Thanksgiving dinner. In the summertime, we do a back to school giveaway for the kids in our community. And those are just some of the things that we’re doing, to contribute to the community.”
The Original Dumpling Shop has become a steady drop-off point for donations. It’s open seven days a week. Anyone interested in dropping off items can do so during open hours.The government of Jamaica has also set up an official website, Support Jamaica, for anyone interested in assisting with the island’s recovery. Other recovery organizations include the American Friends of Jamaica, United Way, and World Central Kitchen.
