DORAL, Fla. — Adrian Lee is among the volunteers with connections to Jamaica who were hard at work at the Global Empowerment Mission’s headquarters on Monday in Doral ahead of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa’s hit.
Lee was in the nonprofit organization’s warehouse at 1850 NW 84 Ave. The volunteers were helping to pack and load boxes with non-perishable food and other donations destined for Jamaica after the storm.
“I have a lot of family in Jamaica, so prayers go out to them,” Lee said, adding that he wants to make sure that everyone has food and shelter.
Billy Richardson, the director at the GEM warehouse, said they are working as fast as they can to get disaster relief packed and ready to go, so it can be delivered for distribution to a GEM team that is on standby in Kingston.
“We are at Mother Nature’s mercy right now, so we are waiting to see what happens, and as soon as it does happen, we are going to do a plane load of about 50,000 pounds, followed by six 40-foot containers,” Richardson said.
Local 10 News Weather Authority meteorologists forecast Hurricane Melissa will make landfall on Tuesday in Jamaica, where flood-prone areas were under a mandatory evacuation.
There is a risk of catastrophic flash flooding and landslides with storm surge of up to 13 feet and about 40 inches of rain in some areas of Jamaica.
Authorities attributed three deaths in Haiti to and one death in the Dominican Republic to Melissa. Haiti remained under a tropical storm warning. Areas of Cuba, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands were under a hurricane watch.
For more information about how to contribute to the effort, call 1-800-995-7604, e-mail info@globalempowermentmission.org, or visit this page.
Related link: GuideStar profile
More on the hurricane
- Reporting from Montego Bay
- Hurricane specialist and storm surge expert’s report
- Melissa intensifies to Category 5 on path to slam into Jamaica as island’s strongest recorded storm
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