MILWAUKEE, Wis. (CBS 58) – The owner of a restaurant in Milwaukee has returned to work after she was stuck in Jamaica during Hurricane Melissa.

Nadine Dixon owns MoBay Cafe in Walker’s Point, a business inspired by the food in the Caribbean and Jamaica.

Dixon and her brother, Shane Johnson, were in Jamaica for her grandmother’s funeral on Saturday, Oct. 25. Dixon’s flight back to the U.S. was cancelled because of the storm.

“It was a bittersweet moment that turned a bit bitter,” Dixon said.

During the hurricane, Dixon sheltered with her family at a hotel on the island’s north side.

“We were in a conference room; I’m sure you guys can picture what a conference room looks like. We couldn’t really see outside, but we could hear the wind. It’s like you could feel the breeze but not literally feel the breeze by how windy it was,” Dixon said. “What got me a little bit nervous was when we heard some movement on the roof of the hotel. Someone came to assure us that it was the solar panels that were flying off the roof and unfortunately the hotel lost every single one of them.”

Dixon said in the days after the storm, while she was waiting to get a flight back home, she saw the destruction in the area where she grew up.

“The church that kept my grandmother’s service for her funeral got destroyed. She was the last person to be buried in that church,” Dixon said. “Even the school that I grew up in got destroyed and that was also the school that I was sheltered in during Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.”

Dixon says many people in Jamaica are still struggling to find basic necessities like food, shelter, and power. She started a fundraiser to help people get back on their feet.

“We want people to have an awareness that the magnitude of this hurricane has destroyed a lot of people’s homes, a lot of businesses,” Dixon said.

While Dixon won’t forget what she heard and saw in Jamaica, she said she left Jamaica empowered by the resilience of that community.

“Knowing how resilient and the fact that we can endure anything and get through it, I think that will sit with me for a very good while,” Dixon said.

You can find a link to the fundraiser here.