Two weeks after Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica, the people who live there, still fighting to bring things back to normal, are facing mounting challenges with the Caribbean island nation’s economy and infrastructure.
The parishes of Manchester, St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St. James, and some parts of Falmouth saw the worst of the Category 5 hurricane. As a result, two major industries, agriculture and tourism, have been severely impacted.
This means those who are left in the aftermath are left simply waiting for things to improve.
“My family operates an events, accommodation, and catering business and I do private school transportation for children from home to school and vice versa,” said Carla Drummond, 43, a mother of four living in Montego Bay. “Since Hurricane Melissa, business has stopped as schools have been closed and for the family business, we are out of light and water.”
She said many functions her business was involved in had to be postponed and one was canceled.
Tourism is crucial to Jamaica’s economy, contributing $4.3 billion to the country’s GDP in 2024, with a record 4.3 million visitors. With peak tourist season about to start, the storm could not have come at a worse time. The two major airports, Norman Manley International and Sangster International, have reopened but some airlines have canceled flights into Jamaica for the rest of the year. Major hotel chains like Sandals Montego Bay, Sandals Royal Caribbean, and Sandals South Coast will not reopen until May 2026 after sustaining significant damage.
Large companies may have the resources to weather this storm, but the ripple effect will decimate many families and communities. Drummond lives in the Catherine Hall community of Montego Bay, which sustained extensive damage. Her five-year-old asks when she can return to school, but her school has been completely destroyed. They suffered some damage to their home, mainly the roof, and many trees blew down. “We are still without light and water, so just hoping we will get those back soon, so business can resume,” says Drummond.
Slow Recovery
According to the Associated Press, 45 people were killed in the storm with 15 still missing. About 30,000 households have been displaced, with 1,100 people still living in 88 emergency shelters.
In a Nov. 11, 2025, press conference, Hugh Grant, President and CEO of Jamaica Public Service, said 64% of the customer service base had power restored. Grant admitted that the scale of devastation in the western parishes means repair and restoration involve redesign and rebuilding.
“We have seen [that] landslides have caused poles and other infrastructure to be significantly damaged and, frankly, we have to now reroute some of our facilities and redesign to facilitate restoration. The good news is, we’re making progress. Our strategy is to first restore critical services like hospitals, water pumps and town centres in these key economic zones,” he said.
The slow restoration for Jeff and Patrice Nephew, residents of Malvern, St. Elizabeth, means being without electricity and connectivity while living in a damaged home they try to rebuild.
“Our alarm doesn’t always go off at 6 a.m. because it’s on the phone and the battery might be dead on any particular morning,” explains Patrice. “Sometimes we have no idea what time it is as neither of our phones are charged.”
“Getting the telephone charged is another highlight of the day, as we rely on people with a backup generator for charging,” says Patrice. The local public community library is solar-powered so the community can charge their devices there.
The Nephews, like many Jamaicans, are small-business owners. Patrice is an event planner and Jeff, a farmer.
“I am unable to follow up with clients, and sometimes if I miss a phone call or if I’m not able to respond to an email it means I miss out on business,” explains Patrice. Her husband lost all his crops that were supposed to be harvested for sale by December.
“I had even planted some seedlings a couple days before the hurricane, hoping that because they were smaller, the wind wouldn’t damage them but then they got waterlogged because of the amount of rain that the hurricane brought,” Jeff shared.
The Nephews currently sleep in the one dry room that they have left after the hurricane destroyed their home, living out of boxes and plastic containers. The stagnant water after the storm means an abundance of mosquitoes, and a lack of electricity impacts their well-being.
“Our nutrition and eating habits are different as we don’t have the use of a refrigerator,” explains Patrice, “if we decide to eat chicken, we have to consume all of it rather than being able to refrigerate a portion.”
The emotional and mental toll of the storm is often underreported. Many will talk about their experiences with others, and that helps but the lack of connectivity isolates many people. “Some days I don’t want to talk about it, and some days I want to vent,” Patrice shared. “Even the sound of rain or the sight of heavy clouds signaling pending rainfall is triggering.”
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