Jamaica braces for Category 4 Hurricane Melissa's rain, possibly record winds

David J. Neal and Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald on Oct 26, 2025

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As an island country in the Caribbean Sea, hurricanes aren’t new in Jamaica. Hurricanes hovering over the island while continuously dumping rain and blasting Category 4 or 5 winds, however, are a different brand.

Category 4 Hurricane Melissa, at 145 mph maximum sustained winds as of Sunday 5 p.m. and forecast by the U.S.’s National Hurricane Center to get stronger, might be the most powerful hurricane to ever hit Jamaica.

Tropical storm conditions started Sunday. Hurricane conditions are forecast to begin Monday night.

By Sunday afternoon, all airports had closed. Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said in a statement that his agency has worked with the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association to give visitors who couldn’t get out emergency shelter.

“Additionally, the Tourism Emergency Operations Centre (TEOC) has been fully activated and is now operating as the communication nerve center for the industry,” Bartlett’s statement said. “It will remain manned on a 24-hour basis to ensure the highest level of coordination, information sharing, and responsiveness until normalcy is fully restored.”

The Ministry of Health & Wellness advised Jamaicans to punch holes in old cans and cover water drums to cut down on the mosquito breeding because mosquito control activities wouldn’t happen until well after Melissa.

Miramar’s Densey Davis-Lumsden said her father, Martel Davis, went to Jamaica to work on their house in Old Britain and told her, “I have kerosene, I have food, I have my lamp. I have enough. We’ve been through (Hurricanes) Gilbert and Ivan. I feel fine.”

But, Davis-Lumsden added, her cousin doing some home renovations that involved roof replacement is worried that any tarpaulin over the roof would just get blown away and leave her vulnerable to water inside the house.

That’s a valid concern, as Prime Minister Andrew Holness broke down the storm Saturday before it began blowing tropical storm winds over Jamaica on Sunday.

“Let me be clear that the entire Jamaica will be impacted by this storm,” Holness said. “The Outer Band seemed to be very wide, and it is already affecting the Dominican Republic and Haiti with significant rainfall we should expect the same so the first impact that we should be preparing for would be heavy rains.

“Once it becomes a major hurricane....then we will have heavy winds,” he continued. “The third impact will be the length of time that it will stay if it continues to be as slow moving as it has been, then we could expect anywhere from two to three days or even longer. So, those are the three things you should be in your mind be prepared for you.” One of the established organizations through which you can donate money to help Jamaica recover after Hurricane Melissa is the American Friends of Jamaica, which delivered assistance to the country after 2024’s Hurricane Beryl and 2017’s Hurricane Irma.

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