Lead Stories

Ainsley Henry
December 9, 2025 by Olivia Brown

Forests show signs of ‘burn’ after Melissa

In the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa – a Category 5 system that ravaged sections of Jamaica – Jamaica’s forests tell a story of both devastation and endurance. Across several parishes, trees have…
Keenan Falconer, economist
December 9, 2025 by Edmond Campbell

Melissa leaves big bill behind

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…
Sixty year old Juliet Clarke of Ipswich, St. Elizabeth, sits atop the rubble of her three bedrood board house after it collapsed during the passage of Hurricane Melissa.
December 9, 2025 by Livern Barrett

‘God is good and we still have life’

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…
Dr Christopher Tufton (left), minister of health and wellness; with Lieutenant Colonel Gail Ranglin Edwards (second left), director of the Health Services Corps of the Jamaica Defence Force, at the Ministry of Health and Wellness PAHO/WHO Health Cluster Hu
December 9, 2025 by Sashana Small

EMTs ready to roll

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.…
Dr Alison Thompson (centre) flanked by two Operation Blessing volunteers.
December 9, 2025

Third Wave Volunteers bring urgent relief to Jamaica’s hardest-hit communities

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. …
Edmond Bartlett, minister of tourism. FILE
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

Closed hotels set timelines for reopening after hurricane

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…
News
December 9, 2025 by Karen Madden

Tertiary schools back in session after Melissa

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…
Former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson speaking with The Gleaner at his St Andrew home on Tuesday.
December 9, 2025 by Erica Virtue

Patterson urges Jamaica, Jamaicans to rebuild with resilience for the future

Amid scenes and images of the widespread devastation to the island’s southwestern coastal parishes following the passage of the record-breaking Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, former Prime Minister PJ…
Laura Littlebear, vice president, Greater Good Charities.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

Bees of hope

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…