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31-10-2025
KINGSTON: Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared Jamaica a “disaster area” after Hurricane Melissa barreled across the Caribbean island as one of the most powerful storms on record, leaving behind a trail of devastation.
The hurricane which made landfall as a Category 5 storm on Tuesday, ripped off the roofs of homes, inundated the nation’s “bread basket”, and felled power lines and trees, leaving most of its 2.8 million people without electricity.
Melissa took hours to cross over Jamaica, a passage over land that diminished its winds, dropping it down to a Category 3 storm, before it ramped back up as it continued on Wednesday towards Cuba.
Holness said in a series of posts on social media that the storm has “ravaged” his country and the disaster declaration gives his government “tools to continue managing” its response to the storm.
“It is clear that where the eye of the hurricane hit, there would be devastating impact,” he told on Tuesday. “Reports we have had so far include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing and commercial property as well, and damage to our road infrastructure.”
Holness said he does not have any confirmed reports of deaths at the moment b “but with a Category 5 hurricane … we are expecting some loss of life,” he added.
The prime minister said his government was mobilizing quickly to start relief and recovery efforts by Wednesday morning.
Even before Melissa slammed into Jamaica, seven deaths, three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic were caused by the hurricane.
Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica’s local government minister, told reporters on Tuesday evening that the storm had caused damage across almost every parish in the country and left most of the island without electricity.
He said the storm had put the parish of St Elizabeth, the country’s main agricultural region, “under water”.
“The damage to St Elizabeth is extensive, based on what we have seen,” the minister said, adding that “almost every parish is experiencing blocked roads, fallen trees and utility poles, and excess flooding in many communities.”
“Work is presently on the way to restore our service, to give priorities to the critical facilities, such as hospitals and water and pumping stations,” he added.
The storm caused “significant damage” to at least four hospitals, Health and Wellness Minister Christopher Tufton told the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper.
‘Monstrous Melissa’
Robian Williams, a journalist with the Nationwide News Network radio broadcaster in Kingston, told media that the storm was the “worst we’ve ever experienced”.
“It’s truly heartbreaking, devastating,” she said from the capital.
“We’re calling Hurricane Melissa ‘Monstrous Melissa’ here in Jamaica because that’s how powerful she was. … The devastation is widespread, mostly being felt and still being felt in the western ends of the country at this point in time. So many homes, so many people have been displaced,” she said.
“We did prepare, but there wasn’t much that we could have done.”
In Kingston, Lisa Sangster, a 30-year-old communications specialist, said her home was devastated by the storm.
“My sister … explained that parts of our roof was blown off and other parts caved in and the entire house was flooded,” she told media. “Outside structures like our outdoor kitchen, dog kennel and farm animal pens were also gone, destroyed.”
Mathue Tapper, 31, told media that those in the capital were “lucky” but he feared for people in Jamaica’s more rural areas. (Int’l News Desk)
