A woman from Sheffield is raising money for her family in Jamaica, to help them rebuild the destruction Hurricane Melissa left.

Viola Hackett, 59, set up a Gofundme page to help her sisters and brothers across the world. 

She recounted what it was like to speak to her family as the category five hurricane fast approached the island of Jamaica. 

Before the storm:

“My uncle lives in Westmoreland, which is one of the parishes that was hit really badly. He lived in a wooden house, and so I was really concerned about him. 

“A lot of the older people, they insisted they were staying in their homes because they’ve been through these hurricanes before.

“I said there’s absolutely no way you can stay there. He won’t survive it,” Viola said. 

Thankfully, friends of hers were able to confirm that her uncle was going to stay with a friend in a house that was ‘stable enough’. 

Viola explained how people in Jamaica were not fully aware of how big the hurricane was, since it is an island that has regularly experienced storms on a yearly basis in the past.

Residents certainly didn’t think the storm that was coming would become the third most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, as well as the most intense landfall in the Atlantic basin.  

She explained how she managed to contact her sister-in-laws, in which they told her they were all going to stay with another sister who had a concrete house, but that the son was staying in the wooden house.

Viola said: “They’ve got to get out, it’s not safe. They just weren’t understanding that this was category five.”

Hurricane Melissa landed:

The storm made landfall in Jamaica on 28 October, during this time, Viola had trouble contacting her family due to phone lines going down. 

When she did manage to get in touch with her sister, she discovered they were staying in a more stable house close to their home. She said: “They could look through the window and see their roof flying off.”

Viola explained her sister’s son was in the house as the roof was blown completely off. 

“The moment he stepped out of the house, the house turned upside down. The devastation is just, you know, you have to see it to really understand.

“[Her sister] was crying on the phone, the house was gone, she said I’ve lost everything, nothing left. And I just felt for them.

“I said I’ve been crying for you all, I’ve been praying for you. I’m going to try my best and see what I can do to help you guys. But, you know, there’s only so much I can do,” she said.

Aftermath:

Since the storm hit, Viola is still struggling to contact her family due to the power being cut.

However the one person she did manage to speak to said the communities are relying on people from Kingston to bring food and water to their villages. 

She said: “You just can’t get through. You can’t get through to anybody. I think because a lot of roads are blocked and it’s not a straight drive, they’re saying nobody’s coming with aid.

“A lot of people in the smaller districts all have wooden houses and nobody knows about these people, they’re having to sleep in houses with no roofs.”

Viola also mentioned people in the communities are stealing from each other, because of how desperate they are to receive any food or aid. 

“There’s theft going on, what’s happening is everyone’s so desperate, and when your roof gets blown off, if there’s any left in good condition, people would come in the middle of the night and take that.

“Everyone wants shelter, I think they’re still in shock,” she said.  

Her family described seeing lots of dead bodies, which at the time, in the UK, only three deaths had been confirmed. This was a period of time in which she described the devastation as ‘immense’.

The death toll is currently 49, according to reports from Reuters. 

To help her family, and the communities suffering in Jamaica, Viola decided to set up a fundraiser on Gofundme, which at the time of writing stands to be at £925. 

Hurricane Melissa lasted two weeks, but the impacts it had will take years to rebuild. 

Communities are still recovering from Hurricane Beryl which struck the island in July 2024.

Charities like Unicef and Red Cross are on the ground doing their best to help re-build lives in the villages affected.