On Tuesday, October 28, 2025, the Caribbean island of Jamaica was hit by Hurricane Melissa- possibly the most extreme hurricane to ever hit the island.
Catastrophe
The world watched updates and satellite images of the swirling winds of storms while Hurricane Melissa roared across the Caribbean island of Jamaica just a few days ago. When reaching landfall in southwestern Jamaica, the sustained winds were around 185 mph. Worst of all, the mountainous terrain of this island amplifies the impact of the heavy rainfall, storm surges, and landslides. Meteorologists have called the storm historic. But as for me, this hurricane has brought a flashback to September of 2017, when I was just a little girl living on the Caribbean island Dominica as it was struck by the eye of the category 5 Hurricane Maria.
In Jamaica, homes were crumbled, roads were covered in debris, and hospitals were left without power as the eye of the storm went directly over. The only public hospital in St. Elizabeth was cut off from aid for days, as well as entire communities in Westmoreland Parishes. This was a level of devastation in Jamaica that has not been seen since Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.
My Empathy
I remember the night of Hurricane Maria like it was yesterday- the sounds of the winds, the sights from the windows of trees blowing away. When morning came, the little island of Dominica was unrecognizable. My family and I were among the few evacuated on a 14-hour boat ride to safety in Saint Lucia. I was old enough to realize that we had witnessed something life-changing.
When I saw the images of Jamaica last week, seeing land underwater, roads erased, and homes destroyed, that same unsettling feeling returned to my body. Families had to save what they could while saying goodbye to their homes, their lives. This was achingly familiar. Different island, same heartbreak.
The World’s Sympathy
After Melissa’s landfall, the world responded. The United Kingdom offered its support by donating over £2.5 million in emergency relief. The United States deployed disaster-response teams. The World Food Programme sent supplies from nearby islands, including Barbados. Organizations like the Red Cross and Direct Relief came to the island with water filters, medical kits, and blankets. Not only were Jamaicans helping each other clear roads and sharing food with other families, but they were also aided internationally.
This brought me back to Dominica post-Hurricane Maria. Every power line was down, and every tree was snapped; however, the people of the island did not wait for help to arrive. We rebuilt the island together. That same spirit, the strength of islanders who find themselves amidst this situation more often than you’d think, is alive in Jamaica today.
Although we celebrate the natives and the rest of the people on the island for their strength and resilience in this low time, the reality must continue to be recognized. Hurricanes like Melissa and Maria are growing stronger and more destructive because they are fueled by the warming of oceans and changing climate patterns. For these small Caribbean nations, climate change is not just a distant crisis. It’s an active and direct crisis that returns every hurricane season.
As someone who has been directly affected by multiple hurricanes, whether the few I encountered in the Caribbean or the few in the United States, I feel empathetic for the grief the locals must be facing. I admire the people who are helping the island, but I admire those there that are helping each other the most. I admire their determination to rebuild and hope they see that every next day can and will be brighter. Once you have lived through a storm like that, you never forget the sound of the wind or the trench it takes to move forward after your life is flipped upside down.