{"id":23006,"date":"2025-10-27T23:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T23:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/23006\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T23:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T23:41:08","slug":"south-florida-groups-prepare-aid-shipments-for-caribbean-as-family-members-grapple-with-hurricane-melissa-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/23006\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida groups prepare aid shipments for Caribbean as family members grapple with Hurricane Melissa impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Caribbean braces for the impact of Hurricane Melissa<\/a>, communities across South Florida are answering the call for help, collecting donations and preparing shipments for those in Jamaica and surrounding islands expected to be hardest hit.<\/p>\n

At Global Empowerment Mission in Doral<\/a>, volunteers are already hard at work. The organization will serve as the main hub where supplies gathered across South Florida will be packed, palletized, and shipped to Jamaica as soon as it’s safe to do so.<\/p>\n

Jamaicans in South Florida worry over family\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is more than kind of distressing because you don’t know when and you don’t know how,” said Ewan Simpson, who lives in Jamaica.<\/p>\n

Simpson was only supposed to be in South Florida for the weekend. Now, he fears losing communication with his children and close family once the storm hits.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the communication being wired and above ground means once we get a storm, the first thing that’s being impacted are the poles and wires,” Simpson said.<\/p>\n

Hurricane Melissa could be the most destructive storm Jamaica has seen, threatening a country about the size of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

“The challenges with flooding and persons getting caved in, damage to road infrastructure, those are going to call for a lot of resources,” said Oliver Mair, Consul General of Jamaica.<\/p>\n

Preparations underway\u00a0<\/p>\n

In communities like Lauderhill and Miramar, several drop-off locations have been set up to collect water, non-perishable food, hygiene kits, and other essentials.<\/p>\n

“Even makeup kits for the ladies, for their dignity,” said Marlon Hill, lead mobilizer for Caribbean Strong.<\/p>\n

On the island, residents are doing what they can to prepare.<\/p>\n

“Persons are buying generators, you find persons buying mostly ply-boards to board their windows, their doors, and their businesses,” said Marvin Edwards from Kingston.<\/p>\n

Melissa is expected to make landfall Tuesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It has been raining for weeks now. So, we’re already talking about a waterlogged space. Some places are already flooded,” Simpson said.<\/p>\n

Florida is home to the second-largest population of Jamaican Americans in the country, and many here are watching the storm closely.<\/p>\n

Counsel General Mair is urging anyone with loved ones in Jamaica to take the warnings seriously.<\/p>\n

Where you can donate<\/p>\n

City of Miramar: <\/p>\n

Fire Station 19 \u2013 6700 Miramar Parkway, Miramar, FL 33023Fire Station 70 \u2013 9001 Miramar Parkway, Miramar, FL 33025Fire Station 84 \u2013 14801 SW 27th Street, Miramar, FL 33027Fire Station 100 \u2013 2800 SW 184th Avenue, Miramar, FL 33029Fire Station 107 \u2013 11811 Miramar Parkway, Miramar, FL 33023Miramar Police Headquarters \u2013 11765 City Hall Promenade, Miramar, FL 33025<\/p>\n

City of Lauderhill: <\/p>\n

Lauderhill City Hall \u2013 5581 W. Oakland Park Blvd.\u00a0Veterans Park \u2013 7600 NW 50th St.\u00a0John Mullins Park \u2013 2000 NW 55th Ave.\u00a0Westwind Park \u2013 4550 NW 82nd Ave.\u00a0Lauderhill Historical Museum \u2013 1080 NW 47th Ave.\u00a0Joy’s Roti Delight \u2013 1205 NW 40th Ave.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Caribbean braces for the impact of Hurricane Melissa, communities across South Florida are answering the call…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13494,2914,2927,28,30,29,8367,1846,12146,17721,13492],"class_list":["post-23006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-dominican-republic","tag-donations","tag-flooding","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-haiti","tag-hurricane","tag-jamaica","tag-landslide","tag-tropical-storm-melissa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}