Hurricane Melissa: How to Help

What are the greatest needs? | Donate | Our history in the region

Hurricane Melissa is the strongest recorded hurricane to ever hit Jamaica and caused widespread damage, landslides, and flooding across the Caribbean.

Project HOPE’s Emergency Response Team is on the ground providing critical health and humanitarian relief to the most affected communities. Read on to learn more about how you can help. 

>> Read our latest Situation Report

How Project HOPE is responding to Hurricane Melissa?

Project HOPE is focusing its response to Hurricane Melissa on the Caribbean’s hardest-hit areas. The team has established a field hospital in Jamaica and is distributing urgently needed food, water, and hygiene items. Our team is working around the clock to stabilize affected communities, support local health workers during their time of need, and provide people with the support they need to recover.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Project HOPE’s team on the ground reported extensive damage to hospitals and deep humanitarian needs. Entire communities were marooned by floods and landslides, with 44,000 people displaced across the region.

Project HOPE has constructed a field hospital outside Noel Holmes General Hospital in Lucea, Jamaica and is now treating patients. Project HOPE’s team at this field hospital includes staff from our longtime partner, SAMU. The team of 25 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and additional Project HOPE staff is supporting primary health and emergency medicine operations at Noel Holmes General Hospital, which lost 50% of its roof during the storm. For three months, this field hospital will reduce the workload of nearby health facilities and ensure that people living in the hardest-hit communities are able to access lifesaving care as they embark on a long road to recovery.

Our team in Jamaica has delivered lifesaving supplies by foot, over landslide-impacted roads, and via helicopter — bringing bottled water, infant supplies, and urgently needed hygiene and dignity items like diapers, body wipes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, soap, and shampoo to stranded communities, shelters, community centers, and health facilities in multiple parishes.

Project HOPE is conducting the following activities, with plans to expand its reach across St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St. James, Hanover, and Trelawny parishes: 

• Establishing health clinics and mobile medical units to ensure access to primary care and psychological first aid services 
• Providing access to clean water, conducting water trucking operations at primary health centers in Lacovia and Santa Cruz while identifying additional communities with damaged water infrastructure so that we can ensure that people rebuilding their lives have access to life’s most basic necessity
• Distributing hygiene kits and shelter items, in partnership with community-led organizations and health facilities 
• Providing mental health and resiliency training to frontline responders, including hospital staff, community leaders, and local organizations as people grapple with the long-term mental health impacts of Hurricane Melissa
• Delivering urgently needed medical supplies, equipment, and pharmaceuticals to supply health workers with the tools they need to continue caring for their communities

Melissa’s damage is still being uncovered across the Caribbean and our team is working to meet the most urgent needs.

In the Dominican Republic, with 625,000 people facing water supply interruptions due to the storm, our team is distributing hygiene items and procuring urgently needed mosquito nets, potable water containers, and hygiene kits.

In Haiti, 14,000 people have been displaced, dozens have died, and widespread flooding has left communities unrecognizable amidst an already dire humanitarian crisis. Our team on the ground in Haiti is procuring relief items, coordinating with local responders, and acting quickly to reach people with support as soon as possible.

>> PRESS RELEASE: Responding to Hurricane Melissa’s Catastrophic Impact on the Caribbean

What are the greatest health needs? 

Jamaica’s health infrastructure has been devastated, with the Pan American Health Organization describing the situation as one of Jamaica’s most severe crises in recent memory. Hospitals and health workers have been pushed to the brink, with hospital shelves empty, services disrupted, and staff witnessing distressing scenes. The storm’s destruction threatens to overwhelm the health system, disrupt essential services, and make recovery difficult.

Dozens of primary health facilities and multiple hospitals have been damaged and deemed non-operational. Health facilities have been operating over capacity and local health workers have been working without breaks while caring for people living in desperate conditions.

“Health workers have been working for days with no rest. They are beyond exhausted and in desperate need of mental health support, but they continue to work because they know their patients need them. Now, we must have their backs.”

– Christine Lathrop, Senior Program Officer, Emergency Response

The total extent of casualties remains unknown as first responders contend with power outages and blocked roads. The storm is already responsible for at least 88 deaths and countless injuries across Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

In emergencies like these, people in vulnerable positions are at a significantly increased risk of harm. Pregnant women, children, older adults, and people with disabilities and chronic health conditions are uniquely affected by power outages, displacement, the potential disruption to clean water infrastructure, loss of access to health care, and the extreme heat and rain storms that have since hit the region.

The most urgent needs in Jamaica include clean water, health care, hygiene supplies, psychological first aid, medical supplies, and essential items so that families who have lost everything can begin to rebuild their lives. 

“People in Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic are waking up in a world they don’t recognize. On top of the trauma they’ve endured, so many have no homes to return to. Health workers and emergency responders will be working around the clock, and Project HOPE is committed to supporting them and impacted communities over the coming days, weeks, and months.”

–Chessa Latifi, Deputy Director of Emergency Preparedness & Response

Hurricanes have ripple effects that can resonate through health systems and communities for years, with marginalized communities and people in vulnerable positions feeling the impacts the most. Major damage to infrastructure, trauma, mental health issues, and the loss of prescriptions and medications are just a few of the lasting health impacts a powerful hurricane can cause. 

Where did Hurricane Melissa make landfall?  

Hurricane Melissa made landfall near New Hope, Jamaica on Tuesday, October 28 at 1:05pm ET as a Category 5 hurricane, bringing 185 mph winds, dangerous amounts of rain, and storm surge up to 13 feet along the coastline. Initial impacts included flooded roads, damaged homes, millions affected, and more than 240,000 people without power.

When was the last time Jamaica experienced a hurricane this powerful? 

Hurricane Melissa was the strongest storm on the planet this year and is tied with the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane as the strongest hurricane in 170+ years of recorded Atlantic history. In 1988, Hurricane Gilbert struck Jamaica as a Category 3 hurricane, and the country has never experienced a Category 4 or stronger storm until now. 

What is Project HOPE’s history in the region? 

Project HOPE provided medical humanitarian assistance and improved access to health care in Jamaica throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In 1971, the SS HOPE docked in Jamaica during a deployment throughout the Caribbean training paramedical staff, pharmacy technicians and radiologists while caring for patients who waited years for surgeries and complex medical care. From 1976-1979, Project HOPE helped the Ministry of Health establish a training program that graduated 46 nurse practitioners in its first class. In 1988, Project HOPE responded to Hurricane Gilbert in Jamaica — which impacted a quarter of the population — by helping to rebuild and rehabilitate the two largest care and referral health centers, the University Hospital of the West Indies and Bustamante Children’s Hospital. 

Project HOPE began working in the Dominican Republic in 1996, aiming to increase access to affordable, quality care for women, newborns, and children in underserved communities. Over the past two decades, we have donated millions of dollars worth of vaccines, medicines, and pharmaceutical supplies to the Ministry of Health, which have been distributed to health facilities across the country. We have also led community outreach on HIV/AIDS and the Zika virus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, with support from partners, Project HOPE distributed personal protective equipment, provided virtual trainings, and ramped up contact tracing to support local health workers. 

Project HOPE’s work in Haiti began in 1984, through a US Government project to develop clinical laboratory capacity at the University Hospital in Port-au-Prince. Afterwards, our programs have focused on emergency and disaster response, increasing access to primary health care, addressing maternal health needs, building the capacity of frontline health workers through training, and the provision of medical commodities to ensure free access to care. In 2016, Project HOPE responded to Hurricane Matthew by deploying medical volunteers and shipping critical supplies to strengthen the country’s cold chain.

Project HOPE has a long history of responding to hurricanes and has recently provided primary health care support, essential health and hygiene supplies, hurricane preparedness trainings, and mental health services to frontline workers following hurricanes Dorian, Ian, Idalia, Helene, and Milton.