At least one economist has indicated that the damage to the country’s infrastructure, spanning housing, water, electricity, telecommunications, and roads could reach an estimated US$16 billion (J$2.5 trillion) or potentially up to at least 75 per...
An open cellar beneath the ruins of her house is where Juliet Clarke now lives with her three-year-old granddaughter and a mentally-disabled man she cares for, but that has not shaken her faith. The cellar is all that is left of her house, perched...
When Hurricane Melissa flattened crops and stripped Jamaica’s hillsides bare, few thought about the smallest victims – the bees. But for Laura Littlebear of Greater Good Charities, saving these pollinators is key to rebuilding the island’s...
Despite a threat from disgruntled students at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, to stage a sit in, the St Andrew-located institution resumed classes on Monday. Like other tertiary institutions and schools islandwide, classes were...
Western Bureau: The powerful Category 5 Hurricane Melissa battered Hanover, Westmoreland, Trelawny, St Elizabeth, and sections of St James, forcing temporary hotel closures and displacing hundreds of hospitality workers. Yet Jamaica’s tourism...
Twenty-one emergency medical teams (EMT) from 14 international organisations have expressed their readiness to support Jamaica’s recovery efforts following the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa. Luis De La Fuente, regional EMT adviser for...
Western Bureau: When Dr Alison Thompson and her team arrived in western Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa, what they found stunned even a veteran of more than two decades travelling to disaster zones. Entire communities were cut off, shops stripped...
Almost a week after Hurricane Melissa delivered a catastrophic blow to sections of southern and western Jamaica, the Government reported yesterday that there are still 25 marooned communities. As the cry for food, water and other items of need gets...
Teniesha Kelly believes it was divine intervention that spared her family’s lives as Hurricane Melissa – a deadly Category 5 storm – tore through her Windsor, St Ann community, flattening homes and sending zinc sheets flying through the night sky...
Former colleagues of the late Professor Christopher Andre Duane Charles, who died last week, are remembering him as a brilliant academic and fearless researcher whose incisive commentary and deep analyses shaped thr understanding of Caribbean...
On Sunday, in Lucea, Hanover, residents gathered in small groups outside shops and supermarkets, heads bowed to phones with fading bars, hoping for a message that would tell them family and friends were safe. They, too, wanted to update concerned...
The Ministry of Education has announced that it will convene a meeting today with key education stakeholders – including the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, the National Secondary Students’ Council, the Jamaica Union of Churches, and the National...
Where vibrant communities once stood in Westmoreland, Hurricane Melissa has left behind a skeletal, unrecognisable landscape. The Category 5 storm stripped the parish of its landmarks and claimed dozens of lives during its passage on October 27 and...
Vehicular and pedestrian access between St Thomas and St Andrew has been severed after the four-lane Yallahs River Bridge, located at the border of the two parishes, was washed away during the passage of Hurricane Melissa last week. The destruction...
WESTERN BUREAU: Principal of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), Keith Wellington, says the emotional toll of yet another disruption on students cannot be overlooked, especially for those already scarred by the COVID-19 pandemic and its...
A member of the national committee tasked with coordinating the post-Hurricane Melissa response is appealing for more patience, from desperate residents in some of the hardest-hit areas, as their grumbling about the distribution of relief supplies...
Unless it is necessary, Jamaicans are urged not to venture into western parishes hit hard by Hurricane Melissa as the influx is causing heavy traffic, which has been slowing down official emergency response. St Elizabeth, Trelawny, Westmoreland, St...
WESTERN BUREAU: When Fernando Davis stepped out last Saturday morning, four days after Hurricane Melissa battered Jamaica, he thought recovery had begun…with money in his account, a charged phone, and errands to run. However, the first stop at a...
Jamaica’s 11- member team to the just-completed First Robotics Competition held in Panama City won two bronze medals at the 9th annual event, even after missing the first two full days of the competition. The Jamaicans won bronze in the Alliances...
With limited commercial flight operations resuming on Saturday, MBJ Airports Limited (MBJ), operators of Sangster International Airport (SIA), has opted to waive all landing and parking fees for noncommercial relief flights bringing cargo and...
WESTERN BUREAU: When Hurricane Melissa howled through Montego Bay, St James, most of the tourism capital’s guests prayed for safety. Gregory McMichael got something more – comfort, care, and the calm assurance that he wasn’t alone. Sheltered...
WESTERN BUREAU: The Port Authority of Jamaica and the Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ), representing the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, have been lauded for their rapid recovery efforts and resilience following the recent...
A Westmoreland family’s desperate attempt to escape the stinging conditions of Hurricane Melissa ended in tragedy when the house they were fleeing from crumbled, killing 18-year-old Monique Coke. The woman, who was eight months pregnant, was...
WESTERN BUREAU: Hurricane Melissa has shattered hundreds of Jamaica’s churches, from wooden chapels tucked in sugar-belt villages to grand cathedrals that survived slavery and emancipation. The storm has shaken the very heart of a nation famed for...
In the wake of Hurricane Melissa’s devastation, the air in Westmoreland hung heavy with dust and debris as mortician Dywite Spence began a grim journey – retrieving the bodies of those the storm had claimed. Spence has been in the funeral...
