Jamaica Rebuilding After Hurricane Melissa
While many are packing bags for some much-needed sunshine, locals in Jamaica are still facing the harsh reality of a Category 5 hurricane. It has been six months since Hurricane Melissa made landfall. While the rest of the world has largely moved on, Jamaicans face daily reminders of the storm’s wrath. In the western half of the country, which bore the brunt of the damage, destruction remains widespread. Homes remain in disrepair, and debris continues to clog neighborhoods.
After the storm hit in October 2025, CORE mobilized quickly to reach more than 20,000 people with critical supplies, including drinking water, rice, tarps, and generators. We deployed heavy equipment to clear mud from roads and reopened access to communities that had been completely cut off.
Since then, our priority has shifted to roof stabilization and emergency shelter. We’ve already tarped 200 damaged homes across St. Elizabeth Parish, ensuring families have a safe, dry place to sleep while they wait for permanent repairs.
Today, CORE remains committed to Jamaica’s recovery. We recently launched a cash-for-work program to accelerate debris removal in the western region.
So far, CORE has paid over a hundred community members in Black River and Parottee to clear 363 metric tons of debris from 517 homes.
Anything from car tires to broken tree branches, or a crumbled cinderblock wall, it all needs to go. It’s arduous work, but each cleared property represents one major hurdle removed for a family looking to move forward.
It’s exactly what it sounds like: we pay locals to join CORE’s recovery teams. This accomplishes two goals at once; it gets the heavy work done quickly and provides economic relief to residents whose livelihoods were affected by the storm.
This effort builds on the expertise CORE gained over a decade of experience, first after the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti, in which CORE helped remove millions of tons of debris, and after a similarly devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2021.
Most recently, though, after Hurricane Beryl struck the Caribbean in 2024, CORE completed similar work to get communities back on their feet. In 2024, on Carriacou, CORE implemented a cash-for-work debris removal program to help clear the fallen trees, building materials, and other wreckage blocking access to homes and roads.
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Make no mistake, there is still a long road ahead. As our cash-for-work program continues through June, we are marching toward a future where Jamaica is fully recovered.
We are constantly looking for more opportunities to help. If you would like to support this mission, please visit our our response page to donate and learn more about current needs on the ground.
