Hurricane Melissa: New Era of Climate Destruction

On the 28th of October 2025 17:00 GMT, Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica brutally in a coastal area called Westmoreland Parish. The storm was classed as a category 5—the highest category— on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, and has been ranked by meteorologists at AccuWeather as the third most intense hurricane experienced by the Caribbean since Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988. 

Although Jamaica is no stranger to severe storms, it has never before experienced a category 5 storm, and the consequences have been devastating. More than 60% of the country is without power, and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated. Homes have been destroyed with roofs ripped off, leading to calls for materials like tarpaulin or corrugated steel. The destruction extends beyond homes, having affected the livelihood of fishermen or farmers, who are often the sole breadwinners of their families. Fishermen for example have lost essential equipment such as boats and nets, but also, without electricity, there is no ice to store the fish they catch, making it impossible to sell or trade.  

These challenges mirror the difficulties faced by the country a mere few months ago, when Hurricane Beryl impacted over 50,000 farmers and 11,000 fishermen, causing $4.73 billion Jamaican dollars (about $29 million USD) in losses according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining. 

The government is reassuring people that on top of a record payout from the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) of $70.8 million USD, they do have contingency funds, a national natural disaster reserve and a catastrophe bond. However, the reality is that the economic toll is inevitable. Damage assessment is still ongoing but experts estimate total repair costs to be about $22billion Jamaican dollars (136 million USD) while the island’s annual GDP is only $20billion Jamaican dollars (2024). For a country whose economy is heavily reliant on tourism ( representing 30% of GDP in 2018 for example), the extensive recovery of infrastructure and land will most likely lead to a significant decrease in tourists and attention from foreign countries. The challenge now will be to remind the world that the Caribbean is more than a perfect holiday postcard, and that real people are facing the worst consequences of a climate crisis they did not cause.  

This is especially important considering Jamaica was not the only Caribbean island affected, with Hurricane Melissa’s wrath extending to Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Here are some of the figures illustrating the widespread impact: 

• Authorities called for the evacuation of 735,000 people in Cuba 

• 31 recorded deaths in Haiti 

• 2 recorded deaths, 3,785 displaced people, and almost 1.3 million affected people in the Dominican Republic 

In terms of aid, multiple organisations have made plans to deliver food for example, such as the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). Andrew Holness, the Jamaican Prime Minister, made the following comment on X: “Our immediate priority is to restore electricity and telecommunications and to ensure that essential services, particularly at the Falmouth Hospital, are stabilized”. 

On Saturday the 25th, three days before landfall, the WFP shipped 2,000 boxes of emergency food from Barbados, to be distributed in the most-affected communities in the St. Elizabeth area of Jamaica, which should help meet the needs of 6000 people for one week, according to the WFP communications officer Alexis Masciarelli. The Caribbean Agroecology Institute (CAI) in Vermon is also raising funds to send directly to farmers and local associations.  

If you want to make a contribution to recovery efforts, donations can be made through verified humanitarian partners such as the ones below: 

• Mercy Corps: Give now to help change lives | Mercy Corps 

• Convoy of Hope: Hurricane Melissa Response: Convoy Is on The Ground 

• United Nations WFP: HURRICANE EMERGENCY: Save lives with your gift now 

Bibliography 

Angueira, Gabriela Aoun. “Hurricane Melissa: Where to Donate.” AP News, 29 Oct. 2025, apnews.com/article/hurricane-melissa-jamaica-where-to-donate-cuba-haiti-red-cross-67f2e4b033d5339fcbe0ec98a719c192. 

Drenon, Brandon. “Live Updates: Hurricane Melissa to Make Landfall in Jamaica.” BBC News, 31 Oct. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/live/cvgvexdjp1xt. 

Farge, Emma. “Hurricane Melissa to Bring ‘Catastrophic Situation’ to Jamaica in Storm of the Century.” Reuters, 28 Oct. 2025, www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/wmo-says-hurricane-melissa-will-be-jamaicas-worst-storm-this-century-2025-10-28/. 

OCHA. “Hurricane Melissa - Oct 2025.” ReliefWeb, 31 Oct. 2025, reliefweb.int/disaster/tc-2025-000196-hti. 

PMT Education. “The Changing Economic World: Tourism in Jamaica.” PMT, 2013, pmt.physicsandmathstutor.com/download/Geography/GCSE/Notes/AQA/The-Changing-Economic-World/Case-Studies/Tourism%20in%20Jamaica.pdf. 

Robles, Frances, and Erin Schaff. “After Hurricane Melissa, a Seaside Town in Jamaica Picks up the Pieces.” The New York Times, 3 Nov. 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/world/americas/hurricane-melissa-jamaica-black-river.html. 

UN News. “Nearly 6 Million People in the Caribbean Impacted by Hurricane Melissa.” UN News, 3 Nov. 2025, news.un.org/en/story/2025/11/1166261. 

Wikipedia Contributors. “Hurricane Melissa.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Oct. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Melissa.