Carnage lingers in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa tore through the island’s west in October, but assistance from Bermuda in the journey to recovery is ongoing at the national and individual level.

Bermudian photographer Ras Mykkal is marshalling his resources to bring a measure of relief to the overlooked inland settlement of Darliston, where many residents were left roofless by the Category 5 impact of the unprecedented storm.

The Royal Bermuda Regiment is set to deploy in February, with soldiers from Bermuda heading south to assist with the reconstruction of the Jamaica Defence Force’s regional base at Montpelier — a vital step for the rebuilding of flattened homes and washed-out roads across the western parishes.

How long recovery might take is anyone’s guess — but Rosalea Hamilton, former adviser to Jamaica’s parliament and now honorary consul to Jamaica for the African nation of Sierra Leone, warned that elements of the island’s colonial past contribute to administrative delays in restoring life to communities devastated by the worst hurricane in living memory.

Ms Hamilton told The Royal Gazette: “It’s very centralised, so it’s very hard to get help to the people who most need it on the ground. There is no structure to facilitate it.”

Hopes for assistance, particularly in rural communities, are being “thwarted by the structure of government”, she said.

Ms Hamilton’s call for constitutional reform featured recently in Jamaica’s daily, The Gleaner.

Two months on from Melissa, she told the Gazette that the level of damage in Jamaica remained “horrific”.

“Many, many homes have been just flattened,” she added.

“For people who are still homeless, obviously this is still a nightmare for them. Every time it rains, people are staying with friends. There are varying expressions of that homelessness.”

Adding to the woes, Ms Hamilton said that across the devastated parish of Westmoreland, the old plantation system of land tenure under colonial rule had gone over to a government that has fallen short in local administration and changing the old order.

“We are reaping that legacy today,” she said.

“Westmoreland has a high percentage of wooden structures. The reason there’s so many wooden structures is people didn’t put permanent structures onto land that does not belong to them. Land reform has really not been satisfactory.”

She added: “There’s a strong, strong demand for people to say they appreciate the food packages, but they really want a roof over their heads. That’s the dominant cry right now.”

Mr Mykkal’s connection to Darliston comes through his Jamaican-born wife, Nathalee Simons, who grew up in the mainly farming community in the hills of Westmoreland.

As was the case in communities across Jamaica’s west, Darliston bore the brunt of a slow-moving, supercharged storm far beyond expectations.

Mr Mykkal said: “Darliston is way up in the hills, 2,000 feet above sea level. In the last 60 years that Jamaica has been independent, there hasn’t been a move away from the rich and the poor.

“A lot of people still live in wooden houses and struggle to make ends meet. My wife grew up in a wooden house and we helped build a stone house for her mother to live in.”

He said Hurricane Melissa “flattened every last wooden house in the community”. It tore most of the roof off the local school as well as the Moravian church.

“Obviously that community is very dear to my wife,” he said. “That’s her community.”

With three photography books amassed over his career, Mr Mykkal decided to sell off the remaining 2,800 at discount to help Darliston rebuild. The campaign could raise as much as $90,000.

He said: “It’s a situation where people have lost everything. If I can help, that’s more important than any money I could make off the books.”

Mr Mykkal has not visited since 2017. He was planning on a trip down just days before Melissa struck. Friends in Jamaica warned him not to come.

He said people could call him at 705-4477 if they wanted copies and that he would happily attend schools and churches to present on his study of the island’s butterflies, Bermuda’s Flying Flowers.

Meanwhile, a house that he refurbished in the capital of Kingston that withstood the storm, offers some shelter to others less fortunate.

“If all goes well, I hope to be ready to go down there in February and get materials, and start to help putting a roof back on the school,” he said.

Mr Mykkal thanked Lindo’s Family Foods in Warwick, where he has been given permission to set up today and tomorrow, from 10am to 6pm, to raise what he can.