Members of the Jamaican American community in Connecticut are anxiously awaiting to hear from their loved ones in the island nation after the strongest hurricane in over 100 years made landfall in Jamaica Tuesday, leaving a trail of destruction.
Dr. Camelia Lawrence of Shelton said she last spoke with her family Tuesday when the storm hit. She has since been unable to make contact with anyone.
“It's a lot of anxiety at this moment, because I do have a lot of family that's on the island, and as of yesterday, at about 2 p.m. shortly after landfall, I've lost all communications with family and friends,” Lawrence said.
The breakdown in communication also impacts people on the island, according to Lawrence. She’s now working with advocacy and aid organizations for much needed help.
“Trees are down, power lines are down,” Lawrence said. Communities are completely isolated, and so there will be coordinated effort to just get food. So we're collecting a lot of non-perishable items.”
Lawrence is working with the Jamaican American Connection based in New Haven as well as the American Friends of Jamaica, which have both launched fundraisers for relief efforts. Lawrence said the community is resilient.
For others like Hamden resident Nadine Barnett Cosby, that sense of community can take on different forms.
Cosby, who is dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University, said most of her connections to the Jamaican American community are in New York, and she hasn’t made many connections in Connecticut.
But she doesn’t feel alone in a time like this.
“I actually have had friends from really all over the country and parts of the world texting me calling just to check in and ask me if my family is OK,” Cosby said. “And I think even without having that Jamaican network in my immediate vicinity in Connecticut, it really is heartwarming to know that I have such a vast support system.”
