The Night the Roof Cried: How Jamaica’s Children Remember Hurricane Melissa  

Jamaica: As hurricane Melissa struck the Jamaican Shores, young children had an experience they never imagined of. The storm tore through the houses, people's feelings and their memories. Now Jamaica has left ravaged to ruins a view that is beyond imagination.

While everyone tries to stand up from the damage, the experience has been left as a trauma for the young generation which they will remember for the years to come. In St Elizabeth, a nine-year-old kid named Tiana Morgan says she will never forget the sound she heard as the storm arrived.

“The roof was crying,” she told Associates Times, recalling the long, bending groans of metal above her home as winds tore through their village. “It made a sound like someone was hurting.”

For thousands of Jamaican children, the night changed how they will see the storms forever.

At Santa Cruz Primary School shelter, when everyone was sitting in the dark due to power outages. The packed space smelled like damp clothes and candle smoke, the residents told.

A volunteer present in the shelter told that as soon as the power was cut and tensions started to rise, A boy started singing church song, highlighting that it made the atmosphere calm and helped him in relief.

The volunteer further highlighted that children inside the shelter asked her about the conditions outside and when will be the rain and thunderstorms will stop, but she was speechless.

In another community a young 12-year-old emphasized how he was stunned after he saw the aftermath of the hurricane.

“When the wind was down, I thought maybe we were the only ones left,” he said.

When he stepped outside his home, it turned into a shallow river. Everything was damaged, parks where he used to play were of no existence now. This was just one story, but across Jamaica children woke up to a different Jamaica.

Melissa hit Jamaica with wind speeds over 185 miles per hour at Category 5 level. The storm hit the island devastatingly and destructively that no island in the Caribbean ever faced. According to the Met department of Jamaica, almost every community from Clarendon to St Elizabeth of the country was flooded.

19 people have died as of now alone in Jamaica, hundreds other displaced and are homeless. While rescue efforts are currently underway, Jamaica is preparing to build back better.