Madam Speaker, Members of this Honourable House,
On Tuesday, October 28, Jamaica endured one of the most punishing natural disasters in our modern history. Hurricane Melissa made landfall near New Hope in Westmoreland as a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 185 mph and a minimum central pressure of 892 millibars.
Madam Speaker, experts have described Melissa as being “at the very edge of what is physically possible” in the Atlantic Ocean — a storm powered by record sea temperatures and near-perfect atmospheric conditions. Its force was so immense that seismographs hundreds of miles away registered its passage.
Melissa is the first ever Category 5 hurricane to make a direct hit on Jamaica, surpassing the previous benchmark set by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which made landfall as a Category 3.
Melissa crossed the island with catastrophic winds and torrential rain, inflicting widespread damage—most severely across St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, Manchester, St. James, Trelawny, and St. Ann. We mourn lives lost, and we stand with the thousands of Jamaicans who have lost homes, farms, businesses, and livelihoods. I extend condolences to the bereaved, and I salute our first responders, public servants, local authorities, community leaders, and volunteers who have worked around the clock to protect life and begin the recovery.