{"id":172088,"date":"2025-12-07T13:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T13:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/172088\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T13:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T13:40:09","slug":"the-roar-of-hurricane-melissa-sounded-like-a-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/172088\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;The roar of Hurricane Melissa sounded like a devil&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765114808_522_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fd729d40-d030-11f0-8d66-e797ff22b6b0.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Handout A picture of the outside of the family home, which is green and cream. There is a grey tarpaulin covering a section of the roof. Metal scarps can been seen piled up in front of the home.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Handout<\/p>\n<p>The family lost everything in the storm, including their 100-year-old home<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A British family who relocated to Jamaica have begun rebuilding their lives after Hurricane Melissa destroyed their home and business. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Sabrina Morgan-Mitchell, 45, from Bristol, moved to Robins River in the south-west region of Jamaica two years ago with her husband, Dwight, and their three young children. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Their 100-year-old house&#8217;s doors and windows were ripped off in the storm&#8217;s 298km\/h (185 mph) winds and many of their possessions are ruined. To help them recover, family and friends have launched a fundraiser.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mrs Morgan-Mitchell, said: &#8220;I have never been so frightened. The roar of a hurricane sounded like a devil.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765114808_522_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6bc991c0-d03d-11f0-a224-bf3cbaf1e70d.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Handout A picture of Sabrina and her husband and three young children in their home. The windows are gone and a wire is hanging from the ceiling. The wooden boards of the wall have come off.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Handout<\/p>\n<p>The family has started putting temporary coverings in different areas of the house<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">After the hurricane warning was issued, the family moved to a small room underneath their house, staying in a closet with a mattress for hours. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mrs Morgan-Mitchell said the family prayed and read Psalms, which helped calm her children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">After leaving the shelter, she said: &#8220;My eight-year-old dropped to his knees screaming and crying, saying &#8216;mummy the house is terrorised&#8217;, we lost everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She added the destruction left by the hurricane looked apocalyptic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Their family business hiring out agricultural machines has also been impacted as equipment was destroyed in the storm.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765114808_522_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/d43d7e10-cb74-11f0-8acb-1b2068777e6f.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Handout A picture of Sabrina (L) and Rachel (R) smiling and looking into the camera . Sabrina has brown curly hair and Rachel has black hair with a fringe.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Handout<\/p>\n<p>Ms Morgan-Mitchell&#8217;s family have been receiving support from family and friends<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The hurricane made landfall on 28 October as a category five storm in Jamaica, where<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cze6zgdgw9po\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> 28 people were confirmed dead.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">About 1.5 million people have been affected by the incident &#8211; more than half of the country&#8217;s population.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mrs Morgan-Mitchell said they still wake up in disbelief about what they went through.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve just got to be grateful for life, because a lot of people lost their lives,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The family have received help from relatives abroad and were given care packages from charity organisations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">They have also begun rebuilding their business, and their children are set to return to school next week after nearly a month off<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Rachel, who lives in Bristol, is &#8220;like a sister&#8221; to Mrs Morgan-Mitchell and a friend of the family. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She said: &#8220;Having been there so many times, it&#8217;s hard to reconcile what it&#8217;s like now. The house is 100 years old. It&#8217;s gone, it&#8217;s unbelievable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She set up a GoFundMe page to help the family rebuild their lives, and is organising a fundraiser for the family in the Jamaica Club in Gloucester this month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Handout The family lost everything in the storm, including their 100-year-old home A British family who relocated to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-172088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}