As the massive eye of Hurricane Melissa churned toward Jamaica on Oct. 28, Robert Wint and Raymean Robinson could only sit and watch helplessly from Dorchester as the storm roared onto their home town of St. Elizabeth, a parish in the western part of the island.
Now, with the nation still struggling to recover from what some estimates describe as $7 billion in damages, they’re mobilizing alongside other Boston Jamaicans to raise funds and gather supplies for their ancestral homeland.
“I grew up there and my parents are still there and family – the schools, stores, barber shops and churches I know – everything,” said Wint, naming other places nearby like Westmoreland and Black River, which were ground-zero for the storm’s approach. “Melissa took it away. It’s completely gone.”…