HARDWICK — After three days without contact, Fitzroy Powell began to fear for his wife and two children in Jamaica.

News reports showed a once-in-a-century storm causing widespread destruction. Powell said he was terrified. The Category 5 storm flung 5 million tons of debris into the air, ripped the roofs off 120,000 homes and spurred landslides that cutoff 27 communities, The Associated Press reported.

“It turned the community to mush,” said Carlton Bailey, a fellow worker from Jamaica.

Powell and Bailey, both from Manchester Parish in Jamaica, are employed at Still Life Farm in Hardwick under the H-2A visa program for temporary agricultural workers. The men, both in their 40s, travel to Massachusetts each year for nine months to work. On a typical day, they speak to their families bac

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