Connection is spotty as Shaggy joins our call from the car. He’s making his second trip from Kingston to Black River, the capital of Jamaica’s southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth. Under normal circumstances, the drive takes about two hours; on the night of Oct. 30, it took six. Hurricane Melissa — the strongest storm to hit Jamaica in modern history — has left the town in ruins, he says, echoing early reports .

“People are homeless,” he tells Rolling Stone . “There’s no running water, there’s no electricity, there’s no shelter. They were sleeping on the streets. We came in last night, we gave out water, we gave out food. There are actually bodies trapped in homes that people haven’t been able to clear.” Still, he and his business partner Sharon Burke — one of Jamaica’s leading

See Full Page