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

Melissa made landfall in southwest Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane on Tuesday with wind speeds reaching 295 kilometres per hour.

The hurricane has been blamed for at least 19 deaths in Jamaica and 31 in nearby Haiti.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

More than 18,000 essential items were flown from a warehouse in Mississauga, Ont., to Jamaica on Friday, where they were to be distributed by Jamaican Red Cross workers.

Relief items sent over include shelter kits, blankets, menstrual hygiene products, solar lamps and mosquito nets.

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

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

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