Family visits are meant to reconnect with loved ones, and it's an opportunity to get in touch with relatives, friends, and return to one’s roots.
However, Mother Nature had other plans for Humber Polytechnic international Biomedical Sciences student Gabrielle Sterling when she visited her family in Jamaica during reading week, just days before Hurricane Melissa’s landfall assault on the island.
She described the before and after of some places on the island as the hurricane went through the nation.
“It was just so beautiful," she said. "It's just unrecognizable now.”
Melissa was a record-breaking Category 5 hurricane that crashed into the Caribbean.
At the moment of landfall in western Jamaica, its winds were at almost 300 km/h per hour, according to the National Hurricane Centre (NHC).
Sterling was in Kingston, the capital city and located on the eastern side of the island for most of the storm, and while they were spared from the worst, Melissa’s impact was felt throughout the island.
She said some family members lived closer to where the hurricane made landfall, and she couldn’t hear back from them.
“I remember being there and not being able to hear from my aunts and my uncle, who lives in a different parish,” she said. “We didn't hear from them in about three days.”
She also mentioned her flight was cancelled on the morning of Oct. 26 due to Melissa’s approach. The hurricane struck two days later.
“Just hearing that, okay, it's coming on Saturday. Then, no, it's coming on Sunday. Then, no, it's coming on Monday. I was a little bit upset,” Sterling said.
She described the weather conditions and the sky’s appearance the days before landfall as “just white.”
Not knowing when the hurricane was going to hit was what impacted her the most, she said.
“It's the anticipation what made everybody worried,” Sterling said. “I think that was the most dreadful part of the whole experience because the hurricane was at sea for so long.”
The hurricane also affected students away from home whose family resides in Jamaica.
Among them is Stephaun Clarke, a Media Communication student at the University of Guelph-Humber, who was in Canada when the hurricane happened, and his family was in Jamaica.
“It was really worrisome at first because, as you can imagine, not being able to hear from your family members who you've been communicating with for a while, it's pretty tough, especially in a time of uncertainty, when you're not sure what's happening back home,” Clarke said.
“And I'm here, so I felt a bit helpless because I couldn't see what was happening. I saw videos aftermath and during, but I wasn't sure if they were okay at the time, so it was a bit worrisome,” he said.
Clarke said he’s experienced a couple of hurricanes while living in Jamaica, and Hurricane Matthew was the worst one for him.
Now with Hurricane Melissa, Clarke said some of his family members couldn’t get in touch with him because of power outages, as trees were blown down in the yard, and roofs were leaking, but the ones he contacted are doing good.
“One of my aunts, who is closest to where the hurricane passed over, I'd never heard from her for about three days prior, but she recently texted me and she's doing fine,” he said. “I called my grandma before the storm because she's living there, and she just gave me little updates of what was happening, and throughout the storm, I couldn't hear from her.”
Clarke said his grandma has solar panels and was able to have power after the hurricane.
“It was a bit worrisome at first, but it was good to learn afterwards that everyone was okay,” he said.
Humber is offering multiple mental health services to support affected students.
Humber’s Associate Director of Mental Health and Counselling Services, Gabriela Yepez, said in an email that the polytechnic offers a variety of mental health services available for students.
Some of those services are also offered no matter the needs of the student.
The Student Wellness and Accessibility Centre (SWAC) at Humber provides services from Monday to Friday in many ways for students.
Other services, such as Togetherall, provide 24/7 mental health services through different options depending on what a student or individual may need.
Humber’s partnership with CMHA Toronto also gives students more opportunities to reach out for help without appointments.
More information can be found on the SWAC website.
For Sterling, while the hurricane left her nation significantly affected, she knows her people and country will recover from this and get stronger.
Not only Jamaicans, but every person can contribute and help each other, especially in difficult situations and be grateful to be alive.
“I feel like as people we should just really pull together and to see that one nation is struggling and just be able to appreciate what we have,” Sterling said.
Videos courtesy of Adian Francis.
