It was a windy Saturday at Lester’s Farm Market in St. John’s, where Oshane Barrett is a seasonal worker, but his mind was on a much more destructive wind thousands of kilometres away at his home in Jamaica.

Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean island nation last week as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall.

Melissa battered the country with sustained winds of up to 295 kilometres per hour, leaving massive destruction in its wake.

“As Jamaicans we try our best to be in high spirits, but at this point now we’re in low spirits to know that the devastation has really affected us,” Barrett told CBC News on Saturday.

“We're just trying to be strong, trying to do as much as we can to help and assist back at home.”

To that end, Barrett said a recent fundraiser at

See Full Page