Jewish and Israeli groups are scrambling to send aid and resources to the storm-rocked Caribbean after Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm, tore through the area after making landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday.

The storm, among the strongest Atlantic storms in 150 years, has severely damaged Jamaica’s infrastructure and cut off electricity to large swaths of the island, leaving its full impact in the worst hit areas unknown. Across Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba, at least 28 people were killed by the storm. 

“Some 77% of the island is still without power and internet. So many roads are blocked. Infrastructure is down, so getting a full scale of the extent of the damage will take a few days,” Shachar May, a spokesperson from IsraAid, which dispatched a team to Jamaica this week, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “We’re expecting pretty extensive damage across the island.”

Stateside, several Jewish organizations have created emergency disaster relief funds. The Jewish Federation of Greater Miami, which is home to a large Jamaican expat community, was among the first to create a relief fund, raising some $12,000 in contributions from 60 donors in about a day. The fund will be distributed to various partners, including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, according to Michelle Labgold, the Miami federation’s chief marketing and communications officer. 

“Sometimes I worry that there’s some compassion fatigue,” Labgold told eJP. “But we’ve been on the receiving end of help when Hurricane Andrew hit, and other times when we really needed help from people outside of the community. So I think that just remembering that we’re all interdependent and need to help one another in order to continue to flourish.”

The Jewish Federations of North America has also created a Hurricane Melissa relief fund for Jamaica and the other Caribbean countries hit by the major storm. 

In addition to deploying a team of disaster relief experts, the JDC is providing immediate first-aid medical supplies, water, hygiene kits, and other supplies to Jamaica, the organization said.  

IsraAid has one person on the ground in Jamaica already, with a full team arriving as soon as possible, including experts in mental health, psychosocial support and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), May said. In the aftermath of hurricanes, she added, WASH is particularly important as floodwaters can contaminate the water supply and spread disease. 

SmartAid, a relief group that provides technological infrastructure in crisis-torn areas, already has three team members in Spanish Town, Jamaica, operating out of a warehouse longside local partners. In the coming days, SmartAid will also be sending more team members and ten pallets of micro electric grids, solar energy equipment and batteries to provide power to shelters, hospitals and clinics and support first responders, Shachar Zahavi, the organization’s founding director, told eJP.