After Beryl damaged his home in Jamaica, a farmworker contends with storm damage in Vermont

BARNET — On Tuesday, Melvin Blackwood, who goes by his nickname, Ranaldo, looked out over rows of crops strewn with mud at Joe’s Brook Farm, where organic vegetables had been growing one week earlier.

When remnants of Hurricane Beryl hit Vermont on July 11, the storm spoiled almost all of the farm’s crops . Owners Eric and Mary Skovsted consider the damage a total loss.

Beryl has now struck Blackwood twice. On July 3, the eye of the storm, which was a Category 4 hurricane at the time, brushed the southern border of Jamaica, causing major damage in St. Elizabeth, the parish where he lives.

It was one of the strongest storms Jamaica has ever seen, according to the BBC , and the earliest storm to become a Category 5 in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records. Wind ripped off half the roof of Blackwood’s home and left major water damage. Since then, he has been coordinating restoration work from afar.

Delvin, Blackwood’s son, works with him at Joe’s Brook Farm, but his wife, Curine, and his daughters are still living in the damaged home. Blackwood said his friends have helped make temporary fixes so it’s habitable.

Asked how he felt when he learned the same storm that damaged his home in Jamaica was headed to Vermont, Blackwood laughed softly. He said he remembered thinking, “Oh, boy. There are two troubles on me now. It’s a setback.”

Going home didn’t feel like an option, Blackwood said.

“We talked to him about whether or not he would like to go home early. This was before we got struck,” Mary Skovsted said. “He said he really needed his wages to buy materials to do the repairs.”

Looking out at the farm field, Blackwood listed the vegetables that would no longer be able to grow: “I have no pepper, no tomato, no sweet pepper, no onion, no garlic,” he said. “All gone. We’re just trying to clean up now.”

Blackwood, his son, and their friend, Godfrey Vernon, have been coming to Vermont from Jamaica for years through the H2A program, which helps fill employment gaps in the United States by giving workers from other countries a special visa for seasonal agricultural work.

“They have been coming to Vermont for many years, and they’re really experienced farmers,” Mary said. “We’ve really gotten to know them and enjoy them and rely on their expertise.”

The storm also damaged Vernon’s farm back home, where he grows yams, bananas and plantains. All three men typically leave in November, at the close of the harvesting season, but will likely leave earlier this year.

A GoFundMe for Joe’s Brook Farm has raised more than $77,000, far surpassing its fundraising goal of $50,000. With that money, the Skovsteds said they plan to keep their employees on through at least August.

“They’d normally stay longer, but we don’t have any crops to harvest,” Mary said. Employees are mostly working to clean up the mess made by the flood and getting the land ready for next year.

“We don’t actually have much work beyond that,” she said.

Blackwood, who has worked at Joe’s Brook Farm every summer since 2021, has raised $1,740 through donation jars at their farm stand and at farmers markets, Eric Skovsted said, and the farm matched $1,000 of those donations.

Blackwood said those donations will help, but going home earlier could still put him in a difficult position due to the lost wages.

“It can feel miserable sometimes,” he said, referring to the storm’s double impact. “But I said, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: After Beryl damaged his home in Jamaica, a farmworker contends with storm damage in Vermont .