Shaggy recounts his relief mission to Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa and shares how you can help

As Hurricane Melissa intensified to a Category 5 storm pointing right at Jamaica, Shaggy knew he had to help, he just wasn't sure how. So he asked ChatGPT.

“I don’t know anything about relief and how to prepare for a storm," the Grammy-winning reggae musician said. “I went to ChatGPT and looked at what we would need in a storm and we just bought that. Luckily, that’s exactly what they needed.”

Orville Richard Burrell, known for pop-dancehall hits like “Boombastic" and “Angel,” was born and raised in Kingston until he moved to New York when he was 18.

He was in Miami when Melissa made landfall, but lives in Kingston. “That’s where the wife, kids and dogs are,” he said. “It’s where I call home," he said.

After the devastating October storm that killed at least 75 people across the northern Caribbean, Shaggy, 57, mobilized relief immediately for Jamaica, shuttling supplies from Miami and hand delivering them to the worst-hit areas.

He's now made it a mission to bring attention to his country's needs. “It's urgent to get the word out and make sure people don’t forget.”

The needs are dire, he said. “I think Jamaica’s forever changed by this.”

Shaggy spoke with The Associated Press on Wednesday from New York City. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

When I heard that a Category 5 is coming, I’m saying to myself, ‘Whoa, this is going to be catastrophic.’ I just started preparing myself, hoping I can get in there and be effective.

I called my friend Dan Newlin. He has two planes and I said, ‘Let’s load these planes up and we’ll just shoot down there.’ As soon as the airport opened, we hit the ground.

It took us about six hours to get to a place that normally would be about two-and-a-half hours. There’s debris everywhere, there is sand and mud and some (roads) are still flooded, power poles are in the road.

I got there in the middle of the night, there was no electricity, it was pitch black so all I could give out was just water.

We drove six hours back to the city that night, and we put all the stuff into smaller vehicles ... things like tarpaulins, female sanitary pads, Pampers for kids, flashlights, batteries. (The next day we) took another route, which took us about four hours this time. That's the only way to do it.

Black River (St. Elizabeth parish) looked like they dropped an atomic bomb there with how damaged it was. We pulled up right before the bridge and they had just shut the whole town down because they said it was ground zero.

And we just pulled up right there and opened the truck and said, “We’re gonna give it out right here.” We thought we were going to get chaos because we didn’t have much security. But the truck pulled up and they just started to form a line by themselves. That’s how orderly it was.

No one could really prepare for that. No one has ever seen it. I feel for them.

The psychological effects it’s going to have on these children. A couple days ago they were probably playing, and now they’re standing in a queue just trying to find some food for their tummies.

We don’t just need to be rebuilding as far as food and shelter, but you’re also going to need some counseling.

If people can’t do cash, or (in) kind (donations), one thing they can do is keep it on their socials, keep it trending. We’ve got to keep the awareness up, because we’re going to need the aid. These places aren’t going to be fixed until probably 10 years before this is back and running the right way.

I'm working closely with Global Empowerment Mission. They have an Amazon link that you can just click on the items and Amazon will ship it straight to GEM and because they have boots on the ground they will get it straight into these neighborhoods.

Food for the Poor is also well established. It’s a Jamaican charity organization. They’ve been helping Haiti and places like those.

There’s also the Support Jamaica site that has been set up by the government.

We’re very resilient people. There’s a lot of love and a lot kindness. I’ve seen this firsthand.

Kingston now operates as an hub that can get food and supplies in and out. You’re seeing a lot of people, just regular Jamaicans, who are loading up their cars on the weekend and just going down there and that really helps.

You’re feeling that community, camaraderie, within the Jamaican society. I love that.

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Humanitarian aid sits on the tarmac at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents gather amid debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa on a street in Black River, Jamaica, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

FILE - Shaggy poses for a portrait, March 11, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP, File)

NEW DELHI (AP) — A fire ripped through a popular nightclub in India’s Goa state, killing at least 25 people, including tourists, the state’s chief minister said Sunday.

The blaze occurred just past midnight in Arpora village in North Goa, a party hub, some 25 kilometers (15-miles) from the state capital, Panaji.

Goa’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said most of the dead were the club’s kitchen workers, as well as three to four tourists. Six people were injured and are in stable condition, he said. All the bodies have been recovered.

The fire was caused by a gas cylinder blast and has been extinguished, the Press Trust of India news agency reported, quoting local police. However, witnesses told the agency that the fire began on the club’s first floor, where nearly 100 tourists were on the dance floor. Several rushed to the kitchen below in the chaos and got trapped along with staff, it said.

Fatima Shaikh said the commotion began as flames erupted, according to the news agency. “We rushed out of the club only to see that the entire structure was up in flames,” she said.

The nightclub, located along the Arpora River backwaters, had a narrow entry and exit that forced the firefighters to park their tankers about 400 meters (1,300 feet) away, delaying the efforts, the news agency said.

Sawant said the club had violated fire safety regulations. The state government ordered an inquiry to determine the exact cause of the fire and responsibility, he said, adding that authorities would act against the club management and officials who allowed it to operate despite the violations.

Local village council official Roshan Redkar told the news agency that authorities had earlier issued a demolition notice for the club, which didn't have construction permit from the government. But higher officials rolled back the order, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a social media post called the fire "deeply saddening# and said he spoke with Sawant. Modi said the government “is providing all possible assistance” while offering condolences to the victims’ families.

Accidents, particularly involving gas cylinders and electric short circuits, aren’t uncommon in India and often result in casualties, underlining the need for authorities to implement stringent safety protocols.

“This is not just an accident; it is a criminal failure of safety and governance,” Rahul Gandhi, a top leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, wrote in a social media post. He called for a transparent probe to "fix accountability and ensure such preventable tragedies don’t occur again.”

The western coastal state of Goa is one of India’s most popular tourist destinations, known for its sandy beaches.

The charred interiors of a nightclub, which caught fire early Sunday, are seen in Arpora, Goa, India, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo)