Sashana Small/Staff Reporter

News
December 9, 2025 by Sashana Small

‘Not one red cent’

Councillors at the Manchester Municipal Corporation expressed collective frustration on Thursday, arguing that they are being sidelined from hurricane-relief efforts despite being the officials…
Wayne Shaw, who has been farming for four decades, is happy that he signed up for the insurance scheme.
December 9, 2025 by Sashana Small

Relief for farmers as insurance payouts begin

After Hurricane Melissa gutted his 10-acre farm in Ebony Park, Clarendon, destroying several acres of crops, Wayne Shaw is now finding some relief as one of more than 130 farmers to receive a payout…
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.…
Hurricane Melissa caused damage exceeding 40 per cent of GDP (US$8.8 billion), far surpassing Jamaica’s US$150 million World Bank catastrophe bond.
December 9, 2025 by Sashana Small

Ministry tackles physical, psychological recovery in schools

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,…
Volunteers on Wednesday clearing a vast amount of seaweed that washed ashore at the Little Ochie Seafood Restaurant in Alligator Pond, Manchester, during the passage of Hurricane Melissa on Tuesday.
December 9, 2025 by Sashana Small

Alligator Pond residents rush to clean up their ‘breadbasket’

Although disheartened by the damage Hurricane Melissa caused to his property, owner and operator of Little Ochie Seafood Restaurant in Alligator Pond, Manchester, Evrol ‘Blackie’ Christian, finds…
Onlookers view houses and motor vehicles that were left submerged on Gibson Close in Mandeville, Manchester, after the passage of Hurricane Melissa.
December 9, 2025 by Sashana Small

Firefighters save Mandeville residents from flooded homes

Residents of Gibson Close, off Ward Avenue, in Mandeville had faced flooding before, but never one severe enough to submerge their homes. On Tuesday, as Hurricane Melissa battered the area,…
Betty-Lyn Brown, a 60-year-old resident of Compound in Alligator Pond, Manchester, explains how a section of her house got washed awayed during the passage of Hurricane Melissa on Tuesday.
December 9, 2025 by Sashana Small

‘I’m homeless now’

Betty-Lyn Brown struggled to hold back tears as she recounted the horror she experienced on Tuesday when Hurricane Melissa tore through her coastal community in Alligator Pond, Manchester. The…
Floodwaters cover a section of Caledonia Avenue in Mandeville, blocking access to the entrance of the Mandeville Regional Hospital after Hurricane Melissa on Tuesday.
December 9, 2025 by Sashana Small

Hundreds seek shelter in Manchester amid flooding, power outages

Flooded streets, uprooted trees, and toppled light posts littered Mandeville, Manchester, on Tuesday as Hurricane Melissa unleashed its full fury in the mid-island parish. The central parish suffered…
A stranded Rupert Roach sits on a bench at the Mandeville Regional Hospital, where he will have to wait out the hurricane before returning home.
December 9, 2025 by Sashana Small

Mandeville braces for Melissa’s wrath

As heavy rain and strong winds from Hurricane Melissa battered Mandeville on Monday afternoon, Rupert Roach sat alone on a bench in the Accident and Emergency Department at the Mandeville Regional…