Caribbean diaspora drives Melissa relief efforts

Miami and New York areas have long been major points of entry for many immigrants.

- BY KATE PAYNE AND CODY JACKSON

DONATED emergency supplies for Jamaica amass at the Miramar Police Department last week in Florida.

(MARTA LAVANDIER Associated Press)

South Florida was spared a direct blow from Hurricane Melissa, but the massive storm still hit home for the millions of residents there who have deep roots in the Caribbean.

Now, the Caribbean diaspora from Miami to New York City is turning its heartbreak into action: filling warehouses with emergency supplies to send to communities across Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas that were battered by Melissa, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

Centers of global wealth - and vibrant exile communities that run generations deep - both cities are cultural melting pots that have long been major points of entry for immigrants. Miami-Dade County, Florida’s largest county, is now home to more immigrants than native-born Americans.

More immigrants have moved into the New York and Miami areas this decade than any other U.S. metro areas, 721,000 people and 553,000 people, respectively.

For many in Miami, the city is an unofficial capital of Latin America - where the salsa clubs of Little Havana and the rooster-filled streets of Little Haiti feel physically and culturally closer to the Caribbean than the rest of the mainland U.S.

Across Florida, there are more than a million foreign-born Cubans and 231,000 foreign-born Jamaicans, while New York state is home to 22,800 foreign-born Cubans and 225,000 foreign-born Jamaicans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.