ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - One month after Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica, families are still living in the wreckage. One Roanoke woman feels the emotional toll may be harder to repair than the homes.

Janis Carpenter remembers the fear of the Category 5 Hurricane Melissa vividly while sitting at home in Roanoke.

“We are all sitting there. The world is in anticipation. What is going to happen? Is there going to be devastation? Is my family going to be okay? Are we going to lose property? Are we going to lose lives?” Carpenter said. “It was just a waiting game until it hit. And then afterward I was frantic trying to get in contact with people. That was worst part, the silence.”

For Carpenter, the images that followed have been difficult to watch. Her family was directly in the storm’

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