By Lilia Burunciuc
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Dec 3, CMC – The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season has come to a close, bringing and the collective exhale that sometimes follows never came.
Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica, leaving the country reeling. Homes and schools were destroyed, roads and hospitals damaged, and countless families displaced. The scale of the devastation is heartbreaking, and the recovery will take time, resources, and resolve.
In Kingston, where I’m based, I’ve seen that resolve everywhere, in neighbours helping more rural neighbours, in local authorities working through exhaustion, and in volunteers driving lengths to deliver critical supplies. This spirit of solidarity runs deep in the Caribbean. It has carried the region through every hurricane season, and it will carry Jamaica through this one.
But Melissa also showed something new. This time, the familiar story of strength and recovery was matched by preparedness. Behind the scenes, years of investment in resilience paid off.
(Details in Features section)
CMC/2025