On Tuesday, October 28, Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica’s southwest coast as a devastating Category 5 storm. Winds as high as 185 miles per hour and storm surges 9 to 13 feet above normal battered the island, leading to dozens of deaths and causing severe damage to buildings, utilities, roads and communications systems. Rainfall accumulations totaling between 30 to 40 inches have created catastrophic flooding and landslides. Roads are blocked by debris, and widespread power and communication outages have occurred throughout the island, complicating evacuation efforts and emergency response.
International Medical Corps has an emergency response team on the island assessing conditions and distributing supplies, working closely with the Ministry of Health and other local partners to determine needs. If requested, we will send additional medical staff, as well as temporary facilities, to ensure continuity of healthcare in the wake of this catastrophic storm.
As Hurricane Melissa approached the island, we reached out to our partners there—including Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and the National Healthcare Enhancement Foundation—to coordinate response efforts. We also reached out to local health and emergency partners, drawing on relationships built during our response to 2024’s Hurricane Beryl and during the extensive training we provided in early 2025 to healthcare leaders on mass casualty management and basic emergency care, which helped officials and clinicians better prepare for powerful storms like this.
Before the storm’s landfall, we prepositioned medical, wound-care, hygiene and food supplies, and now have an emergency response team on the island who are distributing them, working with local partners. The team—which currently includes two doctors, four nurses, one pharmacist and essential logistics and programs personnel—also is working with government officials to assess local needs and service gaps, and provide immediate on-the-ground support. We are currently working with Ministry of Health staff to determine whether additional healthcare personnel and temporary medical facilities are required to deliver lifesaving assistance.
Your support is urgently needed to continue our response and ensure access to essential services for affected families in remote communities. We will report more on our response activities as the situation develops. Please check this page frequently for updates.
*Please note for recurring donations: Once we have determined that the community can continue to respond to the after-effects of this emergency without us, we will scale back our response efforts. At that time, we will redirect your future donations where they are needed most to help us respond to future outbreaks of conflict, disease or disaster.
