Relief Group Looking for Plane to Carry Donations to Jamaica

Relief efforts by Los Angeles area organizations to help residents on the devastated island of Jamaica got off to a fast start this week.

The problem was finding a way to fly everything from medicine to hammers and roofing supplies to the storm-crippled island, officials said Friday.

“We have tons and tons of things,” said Donovan Gordon, 30, a Los Angeles sales representative from Old Harbour Bay, Jamaica, who is coordinating a relief effort for a group calling itself Concerned Jamaicans. “The response was tremendous.”

An Air Jamaica DC-10 left from Los Angeles International Airport earlier in the week with supplies his group had gathered, he said. But since then, he added, he has struck out in efforts to find another commercial airliner to ferry supplies.

“The commercial airlines gave us the runaround,” he said. “ . . . We have perishable goods sitting there. We even have 50 doctors volunteering to assist. We just need an airlift.”

Expense of Hiring Pilot

Private pilots are demanding a minimum of $51,000 to airlift goods and personnel to Jamaica, he said.

The Concerned Jamaicans hot-line telephone number is (213) 298-0011.

Another Jamaican relief group in Los Angeles, the Jamaican Relief Foundation, has a hot-line number too: (818) 405-8804.

Linton Morris, 32, an engineer from the Jamaican town of Manchester, said this group is attempting to induce manufacturers to contribute shovels, hammers, roofing material and the like. Operation California, another private relief agency based in Los Angeles that has been working with the Red Cross, put about 4 tons on an Air Jamaica DC-10 two days ago, said a spokesman, Neil Frame.

As for Mexico, Frame said: “There’s been no official request from Mexico for help.”

World Vision of Monrovia, a Christian international relief agency, has put together a shipment of medical supplies, tents, clothing, cooking pots and water purification tablets, said a spokesman, Jerry Kitchel. The shipment, valued at $26,000, will leave from LAX on Monday via a private carrier and fly to Kingston, he said.

A spokesman said that American Airlines has shipped supplies and emergency personnel and that more supplies will be sent today.