Torrential rains and turbulent winds caused widespread damage as Hurricane Melissa barreled through Jamaica. Much of the infrastructure on the island was not made to withstand 185 mph winds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been rough. It has been rough knowing that some of our buildings are not geared for this,\u201d said Bishop Cecil Riley, a Jamaican-born New Yorker and the pastor at Freedom Hall Church of God in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Officials say some 15,000 people were in shelters and nearly 80% of the island was without power
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Some 260,000 people of Jamaican origin live in the city, making it the largest concentration in the country
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Much of the infrastructure on the island was not made to withstand 185 mph winds<\/p>\n
The Category 5 storm is the strongest hurricane to ever hit the island. Officials say some 15,000 people were in shelters and nearly 80% of the island was without power. In New York city, residents worried for their Jamaican brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people, nine or eight out of 10, would rather stay there to protect whatever they can than to walk away. That\u2019s the spirit of the Jamaicans, and that is a dangerous part. We always ask people to please leave, and that\u2019s the last thing for them to do,\u201d Bishop Riley said.<\/p>\n
His church also has two locations in Jamaica itself that, luckily, have weathered the storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our bright side now is this too will pass. And most Jamaicans have that inside \u2014 that it\u2019s not the end, no matter what we\u2019re going through. So, that\u2019s what\u2019s happening with this hurricane. It is really hitting us hard,\u201d Bishop Riley said.<\/p>\n
Some 260,000 people of Jamaican origin live in the city, making it the largest concentration in the country. Bishop Riley says the Jamaican people are incredibly resilient and full of pride \u2014 two attributes that will serve as a North Star during these turbulent times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a little bit of something in the authentic Jamaican. A brotherly love, a sisterly love that binds us together. And especially when there\u2019s a need like this, people will come to help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Torrential rains and turbulent winds caused widespread damage as Hurricane Melissa barreled through Jamaica. Much of the infrastructure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[387,25,98,100,99,9,24,12,63,308,332,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-21887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-app-public-safety","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","12":"tag-brooklyn-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-public-safety","18":"tag-rebecca-greenberg","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}