Hurricane Melissa: How to Help

Hurricane Melissa is the strongest recorded hurricane to ever hit Jamaica, causing widespread damage, landslides, and flooding across the island. As the storm heads north, our team is monitoring the storm’s impact on the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.

Project HOPE’s Emergency Response Team is responding to provide 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 has a team member on the ground in Jamaica coordinating with local officials and conducting rapid needs assessments. Additional Emergency Response Team members will arrive when flights resume. Our team is working in close contact with local and international partners to identify the most critical needs, assess response capabilities, and provide support as quickly as possible. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Project HOPE is anticipating urgent health, water, sanitation, hygiene, and mental health needs in the most affected communities. 

Prior to the storm making landfall, our Emergency Response Team began procuring supplies, in coordination with our gift-in-kind partners, to ship and distribute once supply routes open. Our team is conducting a rapid assessment of immediate and long-term needs while working to quickly address urgent needs and distribute essential health, hygiene, cleaning, and water supplies.

Project HOPE will look to implement any of the following activities depending on the results of our rapid needs assessment and availability of resources:

• Shelter items for displaced communities
• Distribution of hygiene kits to displaced people and families
• Procurement of medical supplies, equipment, and pharmaceuticals for community health facilities impacted by the storm
• Water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies, including (but not limited to) the establishment of latrines and water filtration systems
• Support for local health facilities
• Mental health support and psychological first aid trainings for frontline workers to prevent burnout and mental fatigue as recovery efforts begin

Our team continues to monitor the storm’s impact on the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.

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 are being pushed to the brink and infrastructure across the country has been impacted, with at least three flooded bridges and several roads now impassable.

Multiple hospitals have been damaged, including Black River Hospital, which lost part of its roof during the storm. Several other facilities, including Noel Holmes and Princess Margaret Hospitals, activated emergency measures due to fears of storm surge and floods. The road to Bustamante Hospital for Children, the only specialized children’s hospital, has been blocked due to downed light poles.

The total extent of casualties remains unknown as search and rescue operations continue and first responders contend with power outages and blocked roads. The storm is already responsible for multiple casualties across Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

In these conditions, 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 now hitting Jamaica.

The immediate needs in Jamaica will likely include clean water, hygiene supplies, mental health support, psychological first aid, over-the-counter medications, and ensuring continuity of care — especially for residents who are older, mobility impaired, or isolated from formal health services. 

“Hurricane Melissa is anticipated to be a slow-moving force of destruction as it moves across Jamaica.”
— Arlan Fuller, Director of Emergency Preparedness and 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, and more than 240,000 million people without power.

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

Hurricane Melissa is the strongest recorded storm this year and the second-strongest storm in 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 Jamaica? 

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 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.