Ras Mykkal helping Jamaican hurricane victims – The Royal Gazette
Nine months after Hurricane Melissa, Nancy Smith is still trying to rebuild (Photograph by Ras Mykkal)
Last October, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record bore down on Jamaica.
As Category 5 Hurricane Melissa slammed into the island, Bermudian photographer Ras Mykkal Simons and his family could do nothing but wait anxiously in Bermuda.
His wife, Nathalie Simons, is from Cairn Curran, a tiny community in Westmoreland that lay directly in the storm’s path.
“Once it had blown through, we started calling friends and family to see how they managed,” he said. “The good thing is nobody died, but the people there pretty much lost everything.”
After Hurricane Melissa all that was left of this house in Cairn Curran, Jamaica, was the porch (Photograph by Ras Mykkal)
Nine months later, Cairn Curran, with its population of about 600, is one of a number of isolated, rural communities that still do not have electricity restored because of extensive infrastructure damage.
“Cairn Curran is the last place on Earth to get attention,” Ras Simons said.
In February, he travelled to his wife’s home community for three months, determined to help in some way.
While there, he stayed in a house with no running water, toilet or electricity. He installed a few windows and doors.
Hurricane Melissa snapped this enormous tree at the base (Photograph by Ras Mykkal)
“It’s so dark up there after the sun’s going down, you can’t see a hand in front of your face,” he said. “If I hadn’t had a flashlight I would not have been able to find my way home.”
While there, he interviewed six or seven residents on audio and photographed what was left of homes, churches and schools. Among the stories that stayed with him was that of Nancy Smith, a young single mother of three.
Before the storm hit on October 28, Ms Smith lived in a one‑room wooden house with her daughters.
“She had a zinc roof,” Ras Simons said. “It’s the same type of roof that you’ll find on a chicken coop. It is paper-thin.”
As the winds of Hurricane Melissa intensified, Ms Smith quickly realised they could not ride out the storm in such a fragile structure. She ran with her children to the house next door, an unfinished stone building with a roof but no doors or windows.
“As she ran, she looked back and her house was gone,” Ras Simons said.
Even that shelter was not enough. As the hurricane strengthened further, she was forced to move again, scrambling farther up the hill to another house, at one point almost losing one of her daughters to the fierce winds.
Preschoolers take classes in a corridor in Cairn Curran, Jamaica (Photograph by Ras Mykkal)
Today, Ms Smith and her girls live in the bare stone house that once had no doors or windows.
“They were able to board up the windows and the doors and create a makeshift door,” Ras Simons said. “The owner of that house has allowed her to live in there while she tries to get her house back livable, which means literally rebuilding the whole thing.”
Stories like hers are far from unique in Cairn Curran.
Ras Simons saw houses where only the back wall and porch were left.
The storm’s power was captured in his photographs: a massive cotton tree with a trunk between 20ft and 40ft in circumference snapped at one of its thickest points, and a 40ft shipping container that had been lifted into the air by the storm, carried over a banana patch and dropped on to a refreshment bar, flattening it.
Schools in Cairn Curran, Westmoreland, Jamaica, have yet to be fully repaired (Photograph by Ras Mykkal)
Local schools have yet to be fully repaired. Fifteen to 20 preschoolers study in a narrow corridor, while primary school students next door take classes outdoors in the yard.
“When the rains come at 3pm, everybody has to quickly disperse because there is nowhere to go, and it rains hard,” Ras Simons said. “The preschool was founded by my mother-in-law and is funded by a private trust, not the Government.”
Across the road, the Moravian church also lost its roof; worshippers have stretched tarpaulin across the top so they can continue services.
Despite the hardship, the community spirit of Cairn Curran moved Ras Simons.
“People don’t have a lot, but they help each other,” he said. “Cairn Curran is a farming community. Most people live hand to mouth, but nobody starves.”
During his stay, one couple, Clifton and Miriam Scott, who lost their roof during Hurricane Melissa, insisted on sharing with him what little they had.
Ms Smith offered to wash Ras Simons’s clothes for a small fee. He gave her JA$2,000 (about $18) to wash his clothes.
“I’m not taking advantage of people,” he said. “I want to help.”
Back in Bermuda, Ras Simons has been using his photography to raise funds. He discounted copies of his butterfly, sports and motocross books, selling them locally after a press conference to draw attention to Jamaica’s needs.
To help further, Ras Simons reached out to reggae legend and humanitarian Judy Mowatt.
Ms Mowatt, the former I‑Three backing vocalist for Bob Marley, now runs her own charity, Judy Mowatt Outreach Ministries.
Ras Simons said a single six‑inch concrete block is equivalent to $1.
“If I give Judy $1,000, she can build a stone house with a flat roof that could possibly withstand another storm,” he said. “Working with Judy, we have been able to get water, food and doctors from the United States to come in and help people in these isolated communities.”
Ms Mowatt’s charity is aiding hurricane‑hit communities in Westmoreland, including Bluefields and Cairn Curran.
Ras Simons, a freelance sports photographer for The Royal Gazette, said he does not have a lot himself but is in a position to help others in need.
“It is difficult, but trying to be there for people when they need you the most lets them know that somebody cares,” he said.
• For information on how to help hurricane-hit Jamaicans, see Judy Mowatt’s website, jmom.org