‘We need help’: devastated Jamaican communities still await aid after Hurricane Melissa

A tractor clears the street of disposed furniture and personal belongings in the community of Catherine Hall after people's homes were severely flooded during the passage of Hurricane Melissa. Photograph: Ina Sotirova/The Guardian

Sitting outside her house in muddy slippers amid the ruins left by category 5 Hurricane Melissa that ravaged parts of Jamaica last week, Narva Maxwell Taylor recounted how she and her family had to fight for their lives when the storm sent flood waters surging through their home.

“We have to give God thanks we are alive. We could be dead. But everything is gone. I don’t have anything left now,” Taylor, a resident of Catherine Hall, Montego Bay, said.