Canadian Red Cross sending hurricane relief to Jamaica after Melissa devastation – National

Canadian Red Cross sends aid to Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa swept through the area earlier this week.

Melissa struck southwest Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane with wind speeds reaching 295 kilometers per hour.

The hurricane caused the death of at least 19 people. Jamaica and 31 in neighboring Haiti.

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On Friday, more than 18,000 emergency supplies were flown from a warehouse in Mississauga, Ont., to Jamaica, where they were to be distributed by Jamaican Red Cross workers.

Emergency supplies sent include temporary shelter kits, blankets, menstrual hygiene products, solar lamps and mosquito nets.

Canadian Red Cross director Nazira Lacayo says the supplies were requested by Jamaica, adding that many people were forced to flee their homes with only the clothes on their backs.

She says the items sent are key to getting people through the next few weeks until they can “get back to their normal lives.”

Melissa has since been downgraded to a post-tropical storm as it moved along the East Coast and further across the Atlantic Ocean.