'They are our neighbors': Miami-Dade leaders rally behind hurricane relief effort

Amanda Rosa, Miami Herald on Oct 28, 2025

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MIAMI — As Hurricane Melissa crept toward the St. Elizabeth parish of Jamaica, South Florida leaders gathered Tuesday morning to encourage residents to give what they can as soon as possible.

“Here we are, not waiting to hear that our help is needed,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava at a press conference at the Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) headquarters in Doral. “We are already organized, galvanized and ready to help.”

GEM, a disaster relief nonprofit, is at the center of South Florida’s efforts to collect, sort, pack, transport and distribute donated items for Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean after the Category 5 storm cuts its path through Jamaica and Cuba and heads toward the Atlantic Ocean. Alongside GEM, several South Florida nonprofits and municipalities began organizing donation drives ahead of time, anticipating catastrophic devastation in Jamaica.

“Mother Nature might be devastating, but our compassion is unstoppable,” said Miami-Dade Commissioner Oliver Gilbert.

The mayor, county commissioners, nonprofit leaders and Jamaican-American community members shared information on how to donate essential items, money and time as volunteers. Though South Florida is not physically in Melissa’s path, the storm hits home for the region’s large and proud Jamaican community. South Florida is home to the highest concentration of Jamaicans in Florida, which has the second-largest Jamaican population in the country after New York.

“As a born Jamaican and a raised American, this one hits different,” said Marlon Hill, the lead volunteer mobilizer of South Florida Caribbean Strong.

The parts of Jamaica expected to be hardest hit by Melissa were still recovering from last year’s Hurricane Beryl, which passed just south of the island but caused significant damage despite not making landfall. Hill visited the island in recent months and saw tarps still covering many houses.

Donations can be made directly to GEM at its warehouse at 1850 NW 84th Avenue #100 in Doral or to several donations drives happening across South Florida, including in Miramar, Lauderhill and Homestead. Requested items include nonperishable food, bottled water, first aid kits, toiletries, batteries, flashlights, generators, work gloves, yard equipment, chainsaws, sleeping bags, portable radios, water filters and tarps. (Donation drives will not accept used clothing or linens.)

Cash donations of any amount are also heavily encouraged to help pay for transportation costs. GEM is also asking for people to sign up on its website as volunteers in the coming days to pack the supplies into boxes. Michael Capponi, the GEM president and CEO, said the GEM team has already scheduled cargo planes to transport the pallets of tarps, generators and food boxes to Jamaica “so that the second an airport is open, they will land there.”

“If the airport in Montego Bay and Kingston can’t open for days, then we find alternative ways. Then we’ll find a different airport,” Capponi said. “And if no airports are open, it’ll land on another island, and then we’ll bring it over with different boats.”

The Trump administration hasn’t made any major statements about the hurricane, though U.S. forces have been stationed throughout the Caribbean, unleashing a series of strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats. Hill called on President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to provide Jamaica with “tools of construction and reconstruction” as opposed to weapons.

“Two things can be true at once, and we know that you have other fears to take care of,” Hill said at the press conference. “On behalf of the over 1.8 million, almost 2 million, persons of Jamaican descent in the United States, I think we are deserving of making this ask.”

Speakers at the press conference emphasized the deep connection between South Florida and the Caribbean, which Levine-Cava called “extended family.” County Commissioners Gilbert and Danielle Cohen Higgins, who has family in Jamaica, shared similar sentiments.

“These are our neighbors. Now is the time for us to step up and step in,” Cohen Higgins said.

Oliver Mair, the Consul General of the Consulate General of Jamaica-Miami, thanked the community for its support and invoked Jamaica’s unofficial motto: “We’re little, but we’re strong.”

“Many individuals will be relying on the generosity of the world at this time,” Mair said. “Jamaica gives you one love. We ask that you continue to love up on us. Together we can make it work, as Bob Marley says.”

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