Hurricane Melissa, one year on: Jamaica Red Cross assists 91,000 people in a record-breaking response while humanitarian needs persist

Kingston/Panama City/Geneva, 27 October 2026 - One year after Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Westmoreland parish, the Jamaica Red Cross, supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has reached more than 91,000 people with humanitarian assistance. That support has evolved with people's needs: from health care and relief items for families in shelters and displaced from their homes, to cash assistance that lets them lead their own recovery.

Melissa struck on 28 October 2025 as a Category 5 hurricane, affecting 1.6 million people, more than half of Jamaica's population. A year on, its effects are still felt. Essential services have largely been restored, but thousands of families remain displaced, living with relatives, in transition shelters or in partially damaged homes. In coastal and rural areas, people lost crops, fishing assets and small businesses. With little savings, less income and high costs to repair homes and restart work, many are more vulnerable now than before the storm.

That is why cash assistance is at the centre of the Red Cross response. To date, 7,161 households have received Red Cross cash and voucher assistance, totalling J$486.1 million (USD 3 million). Never in the history of the Red Cross in Jamaica and the Americas has a cash programme reached so many families.

"It was a home-style cafe just across the street from the school gate, was totally demolished," said Marine Beale about the business she ran in Savanna-la-Mar before Hurricane Melissa. The storm also took her house, and she now lives in a transition home, a temporary shelter for displaced families. The Red Cross cash transfer was the first she had ever received. "At the time when I have gotten it, I didn't have any food, so the main thing I used it to do was to purchase some food stuff". Now her focus is on recovery and resilience: "The business was my income, it is totally gone, you know man, it's rough. Once my business is up, I know I can survive."

In the early stages of a response, multipurpose cash assistance lets people decide what they need most. Some use it to pay school fees or buy medicines, others to repair their roofs, and many, like Beale, to put food on the table. Because the money is spent in local shops and markets, it also supports the recovery of entire communities, not only the families who receive it.

As the emergency gives way to recovery, cash can also help families recover their sources of income. In the second year of the operation, which runs until October 2027, the Jamaica Red Cross and the IFRC plan to support 1,600 more households in rural areas with monetary assistance to restore their livelihoods, helping farming and fishing communities get back to work and better withstand future hazards.

"This year, we have walked alongside thousands of people, parish by parish, home by home, farm by farm. No two families are the same, so we adapted to the reality of each community. That changed us too: we now have more trained personnel, professionals volunteering their skills, and new ways of working that will outlast this operation," said Leiska Powell, Jamaica Red Cross Emergency Services Manager.

Since landfall, local Red Cross teams have also provided mental health and psychosocial support to more than 10,100 adults and children, helping them cope with the fear and uncertainty the storm left behind. Amid a leptospirosis outbreak that claimed 10 lives, health promotion and safe water storage have been essential, and 13,538 households received jerrycans and lidded buckets with taps to store water safely, reducing the risk of dengue. During the emergency phase, an IFRC emergency clinic supported 23 health clinics and shelters. As the disaster transitioned from the emergency to the recovery phase, its medical equipment and supplies were handed over to the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA).

"What the Jamaica Red Cross has achieved this year matters well beyond Jamaica. Delivering cash at this scale has given the whole region lessons from which we are already learning. Every hurricane season reminds us that the strongest response is led by people who live in affected communities and are coordinating with local and national authorities, both true for the Jamaica Red Cross Society. It is a response that listens to people, respects their dignity and puts decisions in their hands," said Loyce Pace, IFRC Regional Director for the Americas.

This year of humanitarian assistance has been supported by the IFRC Emergency Appeal, launched in October 2025 for CHF 19 million to support 180,000 people over 24 months. With the appeal 62.18 per cent funded, continued investment is needed to scale up solutions, like monetary transfers, that have already shown their impact, helping families recover and building communities better prepared for future crises.

For more information or to request an interview, please contact: [email protected]

In Jamaica

Esther Pinnock, +1(876)867-4575

In Panama

Susana Arroyo Barrantes, +507 6999-3199

In Geneva

Tommaso Della Longa, +41 (0) 79 708 4367