The low-cost carrier now says the start of those flights has been delayed until sometime late this year.
In a written statement, the airline cites “extensive damage to both airport facilities and resorts” in western Jamaica caused by Hurricane Melissa in late October. Melissa was the strongest hurricane to hit Jamaica in recorded history, with sustained winds of 185 mph.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused for our guests and look forward to welcoming them back onboard later in the year,” the airline said.
Breeze is the only airline with announced flights to Jamaica from RDU. Avelo Airlines had flown to Montego Bay from the Triangle twice a week last year but ended that service Jan. 3, saying it wasn’t able to sell enough seats on its Boeing 737 aircraft.
Breeze uses smaller Airbus A220-300 aircraft that seat 137 passengers.
Triangle travelers can fly nonstop from RDU to two other Caribbean islands. Three airlines — Delta, Frontier and JetBlue — offer nonstops to San Juan, Puerto Rico. And Breeze plans to begin nonstops to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, on March 4, joining Avelo and American on that route.
Richard Stradling covers transportation for The News & Observer. Planes, trains and automobiles, plus ferries, bicycles, scooters and just plain walking. He’s been a reporter or editor for 38 years, including the last 26 at The N&O. 919-829-4739, rstradling@newsobserver.com.
Dan Rowe was among the volunteers repairing public water systems damaged by Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica in October. A project leader for Veolia North America, Rowe, who helps operate Nassau County‘s water treatment facility in Wantagh, was up for the task, despite the challenges.
Rowe volunteers with Veolia Foundation, whose international mission includes assisting during humanitarian emergencies, providing development aid, strengthening the environment and supporting biodiversity. In Jamaica, Rowe worked with a team that included members of the French Red Cross, as they confronted the threat of disease and dehydration facing the island’s thousands of residents.
Rowe spent three weeks working with improvised equipment, inventing solutions in the field and navigating an international team of people he had never met before.
He said there were many “MacGyver” moments, referring to a TV character who could create a workaround and save the day even during the most dire circumstances.
“I brought along tools that I anticipated would be required but there were field challenges that required a ‘MacGyver’ solution if we were to get the island’s population potable water that would be safe to drink,” he said in a written statement.
“Another challenge was the language barrier,” Rowe said. “Unlike our teams here at Veolia North America where each member knows intuitively what the other person’s skillset is, I was working with people I had never met before, and my French is – to be polite – limited.”
Rowe also had to manage the expectations of his family back on Long Island as he worked to provide access to safe drinking water for Jamaica.
“I was gone far longer than what I expected, essentially working through a solid month with one day off but my family understood the urgency, the mission, and the commitment,” he said.
PETIT GOÂVE, Haiti (AP) — Amizia Renotte sat on a broken piece of concrete and pointed to a large pile of dirt where her house once stood before the outer bands of Hurricane Melissa crumpled it as the storm lashed Haiti’s southern region.
The Atlantic hurricane season may be over, but thousands of people like Renotte in this Carribean country and beyond are still looking for food and struggling to rebuild their lives nearly two months after the Category 5 storm pummeled the northern Caribbean region as one of the strongest Atlantic storms in recorded history.
“We ran. We had nothing to save,” Renotte said as she recalled waking up in the middle of the night surrounded by floodwaters.
Melissa killed at least 43 people across Haiti, many of them in Petit-Goâve, where residents are still digging out from under the storm that unleased deadly flooding.
Huge piles of dirt and mud now smother this southern coastal town, which once bustled with farmers and street vendors.
The groan of heavy machinery fills the air as crews slowly clear debris scattered by La Digue River, which swept away children, cars and homes in late October.
“People lost everything,” resident Clermont Wood Mandy said. “They lost their homes. They lost their children.”
Hunger persists
Petit-Goâve held a mass funeral in mid-November to say its goodbyes to loved ones, but hunger and frustration remain.
On a recent morning, people crowded around a small convenience store stocked with pasta, butter, rice and other basic items produced locally after receiving cash donations.
In line to buy something was 37-year-old Joceline Antoine, who lost five relatives in the storm.
“My house is destroyed,” she said.
Lola Castro, a regional director with the U.N.’s World Food Program, or WFP, who recently traveled to Petit-Goâve, said in a phone interview Friday that Melissa has deepened Haiti’s crises.
“Around 5.3 million people don’t have enough to eat every day in Haiti,” she said. “That’s a huge challenge.”
Castro noted that Petit-Goâve was an agricultural community that depended heavily on crops, including plantain, corn and beans.
“They have lost their income. They have lost their means of living,” she said.
‘No community will be forgotten’
Jamaica also is struggling to recover from Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in the western part of the neighboring island in late October, causing an estimated $8.8 billion in damage.
The storm killed at least 45 people, and 13 others remain missing, with an additional 32 deaths under investigation, according to Alvin Gayle, director-general of Jamaica’s emergency management office.
Authorities have reported 30 confirmed cases of leptospirosis — an infection transmitted from animals — and another 84 unconfirmed ones, with 12 related deaths. There were also two cases of tetanus, one of them fatal.
“These figures underscore the scale of the human impact and the seriousness with which the ministries, departments and agencies of government continue to approach the recovery effort,” Gayle said.
More than 100 shelters remain open in seven of Jamaica’s parishes, housing more than 1,000 people.
Meanwhile, some 160 schools remain closed.
“No community will be forgotten,” Gayle said.
Jamaica recently announced that it obtained a $150 million loan to help restore electricity as quickly as possible, with officials saying they expect power to fully be restored by the end of January.
Jamaica also has obtained a $6.7 billion package for reconstruction efforts over three years from the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean; the Caribbean Development Bank; the Inter-American Development Bank Group; the International Monetary Fund; and the World Bank Group.
Call for funding
In Cuba, hundreds of people remain in makeshift shelters nearly two months after the hurricane made landfall in the eastern region of the island hours after it hit Jamaica.
No storm-related deaths were reported in Cuba, where authorities evacuated more than 700,000 people from coastal areas.
Nearly a month after the storm, the U.N. said that about 53,000 people in Cuba had been unable to return to their homes, including 7,500 living in official shelters.
Castro, of the WFP, said that Hurricane Melissa affected 6 million people overall in the Caribbean, including 1.2 million in Haiti.
Around 1.3 million people in the region now need food, security or other type of support, with WFP so far helping 725,000 of them, Castro said.
She said she hopes that number will grow, noting that the agency’s $83 million appeal is only 50% funded.
Cars are submerged in mudin Petit-Goave, Haiti.f ollowing Hurricane Melissa’s torrential rains.
CLARENS SIFFROY
AFP via Getty Images
A month and a half after Hurricane Melissa killed dozens of people in Haiti, the country is still struggling with its aftermath.
Haitians, who were already going hungry because gang violence has blocked highways and cut off commerce, are grappling with even more shortages and the loss of crops, the regional director of the United Nations’ World Food Program said Thursday during a visit to the country.
As she spoke via video, a helicopter, still the only way humanitarian aid workers can get in and out of Port-au-Prince and into storm-ravaged areas, flew overhead.
“We cannot forget Haiti,“ Lola Castro said, adding it remains one of five countries in the world where people “don’t have enough to eat every day.”
Among the places she visited, Castro said, was the coastal town of Petit-Goâve, where a river overflowed its banks, killing at least 25 people. Along with homes and livelihoods, residents also lost their crops.
“They have lost their families, their livelihoods, their crops, their cattle, their houses, and now they are trying to rebuild their lives,” she said.
At least 43 storm-related deaths were reported in Haiti, even though Melissa did not hit the country directly and U.N. agencies tried to prepare the public ahead of the storm.
There are ongoing efforts by the ministry of agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations “to see how these communities can replant and rehabilitate their livelihoods,” she said.
Castro said the U.N. agency is working on recovery and rehabilitation in a number of ways, including school feeding programs and working with the government on a system that registers everyone affected.
The World Food Program provides over 600,000 children a hot meal every day in many schools in Haiti. Castro noted that with up to 90% of Haiti’s capital under gang control, the agency has created a large logistics operations to help get access to vulnerable communities.
The World Food Program is equally active in Jamaica, where fishermen have lost their boats, and in Cuba, where the loss of almost all crops on the easter end of the island and an ancient, trouble-plagued electrical grid has made for “a very difficult situation.”
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
Orlando could potentially return to hosting World Cup soccer games in the coming years.On Friday, FIFA announced that the bid books to host the 2031 and 2035 Women’s World Cups were submitted. A joint bid from the soccer federations of the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica to co-host the 2031 edition was included in Tuesday’s announcement. Orlando was named one of over 35 cities across the bidding countries vying to host 2031 World Cup games at Inter&Co Stadium and Camping World Stadium. “We are honored that both Camping World Stadium and Inter&Co Stadium have been selected to advance in U.S. Soccer’s bid book for the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup,” said Jason Siegel, President & CEO of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission. “This important next step in the process reflects the strength of our regional partnerships and the collective commitment of Orlando City SC and Orlando Pride, Orlando Venues, the City of Orlando, Orange County, and Visit Orlando to showcasing world-class soccer.” Orlando previously hosted six games of the FIFA Club World Cup last summer at both Inter&Co and Camping World Stadiums.Orlando leaders expressed their desire to host games in the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup earlier this year following a visit to Orlando from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. During that visit, Infantino told reporters, “If the results of this test, of this Club World Cup that takes place now are positive, which I’m convinced they will be, with not just full stadiums, but also a welcoming atmosphere in the city to welcome the fans from all over the world, then I think that the prerogatives and the conditions for being a host city in Women’s World Cup in 2031 will certainly be met.”Related: Big test for Orlando’s Women’s World Cup hopes Orlando last hosted World Cup games last summer with the Club World Cup edition and previously the Men’s World Cup in 1994 at the then-Citrus Bowl, now Camping World Stadium. Caesar Lopez, the COO and general counsel for Orlando City Soccer Club, told WESH 2 last April that the club will be aggressively pushing for a 2031 bid.”We are more than excited about the opportunity to host and an honor to have a prestigious tournament like the Women’s World Cup in our market,” Lopez said. “We’ve had the success of our game really explode with the 1994 World Cup, and now having it again, an opportunity to be a catalyst for the women’s game, would be an amazing opportunity. We’re going to be aggressive about it. We want to make sure we serve our community and fans with the best soccer in the world.”A final decision on the hosting rights for the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup is expected following FIFA’s Congress scheduled for April 30, 2026. The USA-Mexico-Costa Rica-Jamaica bid was the only one submitted. The host city selection will be made after the tournament is awarded to the bidding nation, according to the Greater Orlando Sports Commission. Orlando City of Major League Soccer and the Orlando Pride of the National Women’s Soccer League currently play at Inter&Co Stadium. Camping World Stadium, which will likely don a new name once its existing naming rights expire at the end of the year, has also hosted international soccer games throughout the year. Camping World Stadium is expecting to undergo a $400 million renovation with construction starting in December. Renovation to the stadium will increase capacity to a minimum of 65,000, among other things. Mike Gramajo is an Assignment Editor and Sportswriter at WESH 2, who has covered the Orlando soccer scene since 2012. You can follow his coverage over on X and Instagram.
Orlando could potentially return to hosting World Cup soccer games in the coming years.
On Friday, FIFA announced that the bid books to host the 2031 and 2035 Women’s World Cups were submitted.
A joint bid from the soccer federations of the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica to co-host the 2031 edition was included in Tuesday’s announcement.
Orlando was named one of over 35 cities across the bidding countries vying to host 2031 World Cup games at Inter&Co Stadium and Camping World Stadium.
“We are honored that both Camping World Stadium and Inter&Co Stadium have been selected to advance in U.S. Soccer’s bid book for the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup,” said Jason Siegel, President & CEO of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission. “This important next step in the process reflects the strength of our regional partnerships and the collective commitment of Orlando City SC and Orlando Pride, Orlando Venues, the City of Orlando, Orange County, and Visit Orlando to showcasing world-class soccer.”
Orlando previously hosted six games of the FIFA Club World Cup last summer at both Inter&Co and Camping World Stadiums.
Orlando leaders expressed their desire to host games in the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup earlier this year following a visit to Orlando from FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
During that visit, Infantino told reporters, “If the results of this test, of this Club World Cup that takes place now are positive, which I’m convinced they will be, with not just full stadiums, but also a welcoming atmosphere in the city to welcome the fans from all over the world, then I think that the prerogatives and the conditions for being a host city in Women’s World Cup in 2031 will certainly be met.”
Orlando last hosted World Cup games last summer with the Club World Cup edition and previously the Men’s World Cup in 1994 at the then-Citrus Bowl, now Camping World Stadium.
Getty ImagesShaun Botterill – FIFA
Caesar Lopez, the COO and general counsel for Orlando City Soccer Club, told WESH 2 last April that the club will be aggressively pushing for a 2031 bid.
“We are more than excited about the opportunity to host and an honor to have a prestigious tournament like the Women’s World Cup in our market,” Lopez said. “We’ve had the success of our game really explode with the 1994 World Cup, and now having it again, an opportunity to be a catalyst for the women’s game, would be an amazing opportunity. We’re going to be aggressive about it. We want to make sure we serve our community and fans with the best soccer in the world.”
A final decision on the hosting rights for the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup is expected following FIFA’s Congress scheduled for April 30, 2026.
The USA-Mexico-Costa Rica-Jamaica bid was the only one submitted.
The host city selection will be made after the tournament is awarded to the bidding nation, according to the Greater Orlando Sports Commission.
Orlando City of Major League Soccer and the Orlando Pride of the National Women’s Soccer League currently play at Inter&Co Stadium.
Camping World Stadium, which will likely don a new name once its existing naming rights expire at the end of the year, has also hosted international soccer games throughout the year.
Camping World Stadium is expecting to undergo a $400 million renovation with construction starting in December.
Renovation to the stadium will increase capacity to a minimum of 65,000, among other things.
Mike Gramajo is an Assignment Editor and Sportswriter at WESH 2, who has covered the Orlando soccer scene since 2012. You can follow his coverage over on X and Instagram.
Flooding and damaged buildings are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in Lacovia, St Elizabeth, Jamaica, on October 31, 2025.
RICARDO MAKYN
AFP via Getty Images
Jamaica is seeing an outbreak of leptospirosis and is urging anyone who is experiencing symptoms from the infectious disease to seek immediate medical care.
A serious public health risk associated with heavy rainfalls, the disease is caused by the Leptospira bacteria found in water contaminated by the urine of infected animals like rats, cats, dogs and livestock. The signs of leptospirosis include flu-like symptoms with high fever, headache, chills and muscle aches. Infected persons can experience kidney or liver failure or internal bleeding.
“It can affect anyone who comes in contact with contaminated soil or mud. That includes farmers, persons engaged in clean-up activities, emergency responders and others navigating flood areas,” Health Minister Christopher Tufton said.
Tufton confirmed the outbreak on Friday. Health officials said there was in increase in confirmed and suspected cases across eight parishes in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, which devastated the island on Oct. 28 as a Category 5 hurricane. Preliminary assessments show that the country has suffered nearly $9 billion in damages.
Tufton said there have been 28 probable cases of the infectious disease reported between Oct. 30 and Nov. 20.
“The numbers reflect significantly more cases… than observed in the proceeding 34 months,” he said. “There have been six deaths from the suspected cases.”
On Monday, the United Nations Development Program announced that it is providing an initial $2 million in grants to help stabilize affected communities, including restoring livelihoods of vulnerable groups and supporting national authorities and key sectors. An additional $8 million is also under consideration.
More than 90 organizations are currently involved in Jamaica’s post-hurricane response, the U.N. said last week.
“Response operations have been stepped up as access improves. Emergency medical teams and mobile clinics have now been deployed, allowing critical services to resume despite damaged infrastructure. Public health teams are also scaling up water-quality testing and environmental health inspections,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.
More than 45,000 food kits have been distributed, while the World Food Program is working with the government to prepare a transition to cash-based assistance. Meanwhile, more than 100 emergency shelters remain open, but the effort is not without challenges.
“Flooding is persisting, which is delaying the reopening of schools and further damaging agricultural roads and infrastructure,” Dujarric said. “The floods are also increasing risks to public health due to the risk of water-borne diseases,”
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
(CNN) — Jimmy Cliff, the smooth-voiced singer who helped popularize the reggae genre, has died at age 81, his wife announced on Instagram on Monday.
“It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia,” Latifa Chambers said.
“I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him. To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career. He really appreciated each and every fan for their love.”
With hits like “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “The Harder They Come,” and “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” Cliff reached worldwide success and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, the only Jamaican apart from Bob Marley to achieve that honor.
As well as his music, he was known for his starring role in the 1972 movie “The Harder They Come,” in which he plays Ivan Martin, a young man who moves to the Jamaican capital, Kingston, to break into the music industry but eventually turns to crime instead. That movie and its soundtrack, for which Cliff wrote several songs, helped popularize reggae in the United States and made Cliff a star.
Cliff’s own story bears some similarities to Martin’s. He was born James Chambers in 1944 in St. James Parish, western Jamaica, in the middle of a hurricane that destroyed his family home. The second-youngest of eight children, he grew up in poverty, singing in church and later taking the stage name Jimmy Cliff.
He moved to Kingston in 1961 and enjoyed his first hit at just 14, when his single “Hurricane Hattie” reached the top of the Jamaican charts. He moved to London shortly afterward to advance his career.
There, he recorded his first album, which incorporated elements of R&B, before returning to Jamaica. His work became increasingly popular. By 1970, he had three singles in the UK charts: “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” “Vietnam” (which Bob Dylan called the “best protest song ever written”) and a cover of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World.”
He later worked with acts like the Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, Annie Lennox and Paul Simon, and recorded a track, “I Can See Clearly Now,” on the soundtrack of the 1993 movie “Cool Runnings.”
Such was Cliff’s stature that Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness paid tribute to him on X after his death, remembering him as a “true cultural giant whose music carried the heart of our nation to the world.”
Reggae music icon Jimmy Cliff, who’s unique tone, lyricism and breakthrough role on the silver screen helped make the music of his native Jamaica part of popular culture across the globe, has died at the age of 81, his family said in a statement shared Monday on social media.
“It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia,” Latifa Chambers said in a statement posted on Cliff’s Instagram account. “I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him. To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career … Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace. I will follow your wishes.”
The couple’s children Lilty and Aken also signed the statement.
Jimmy Cliff performs on stage during Day 3 of Bestival 2018 at Lulworth Estate on August 4, 2018 in Lulworth Camp, England.
C Brandon/Redferns
Cliff was one of Jamaican music’s early international stars, emerging as reggae evolved from the sounds of ska and rocksteady in the 1960s and early 1970s. His starring role in the enduring classic movie “The Harder They Come,” an entirely Jamaican production, in 1972 cemented his legacy as not only a musician, but a cultural phenom.
Cliff played Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin, an aspiring singer who came up against the harsh realities of a music business run by self-interested producers, at the expense of artists, and the abundant traps for young Jamaicans trying to survive amid an epidemic of violent gang crime that swept the nation.
“Ivanhoe was a real-life character for Jamaicans,” Cliff told Variety magazine in a 2022 interview to mark the 50th anniversary of the movie’s release. “When I was a little boy, I used to hear about him as being a bad man. A real bad man. No one in Jamaica, at that time, had guns. But he had guns and shot a policeman, so he was someone to be feared. However, being a hero was the manner in which [director] Perry [Henzel] wanted to make his name — an anti-hero in the way that Hollywood turns its bad guys into heroes.”
The messages in the movie, just like his music, were timeless.
The title track from “The Harder They Come,” along with familiar hits including “Many Rivers to Cross” and “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” spoke to the struggles of Jamaicans at the time, but they have continued to resonate with audiences around the world since he wrote them.
Cliff, along with other icons such as Bob Marley and Toots Hibbert helped give the music and culture of their relatively small Caribbean nation a global impact that endures today, and far exceeds Jamaica’s size in terms of population economy.
Jimmy Cliff performs at the Wickerman festival at Dundrennan, in Dumfries, Scotland, July 25, 2015.
Ross Gilmore/Redferns
His animated onstage presence and high-pitched tone were unmistakable. Cliff released his last single, “Human Touch,” only four years ago. According to The Associated Press, Cliff was nominated for Grammy awards seven times and he won twice, taking best reggae album in 1986 with “Cliff Hanger,” and again in 2012 with “Rebirth.”
In a tribute posted on his own social media accounts early Monday morning, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness called Cliff “a true cultural giant whose music carried the heart of our nation to the world.”
“Jimmy Cliff told our story with honesty and soul,” Holness said. “His music lifted people through hard times, inspired generations, and helped to shape the global respect that Jamaican culture enjoys today. We give thanks for his life, his contribution, and the pride he brought to Jamaica … Walk good, Jimmy Cliff. Your legacy lives on in every corner of our island and in the hearts of the Jamaican people.”
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — The tiny Caribbean island country Curaçao will go to the 2026 World Cup as the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the marquee event in men’s soccer.
Curaçao, an autonomous territory of about 156,000 people within the Netherlands kingdom, takes the record of Iceland, with a population of just over 350,000, which was the previous smallest country to reach the World Cup when it qualified for Russia 2018.
A team relying heavily on players born and raised in the Netherlands rode its luck Tuesday to take a 0-0 draw in Jamaica and finish top of a four-team group. Its other opponents were Trinidad and Tobago and last-place Bermuda.
Curaçao has actively recruited from its diaspora, getting permission from FIFA within world soccer’s rules to change the national-team eligibility of players who once represented the Netherlands at youth or Under-21 level, including five since August.
Defender Joshua Brenet even played a World Cup qualifying game for the Netherlands in 2016.
Tahith Chong, a former Manchester United youth player, is one of the few squad members born in Curaçao, which was called Netherlands Antilles until getting its autonomy 15 years ago.
A storied Dutch coach has led Curaçao on to the elite stage for the first expanded 48-team World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Haiti scored a decisive victory against Nicaragua on Tuesday, securing a place in the 2026 Soccer World Cup. (AP/ Pierre Luxama)
Dick Advocaat, at age 78, is set to lead his third team at a World Cup, and his second in the U.S. He took his native Netherlands to the quarterfinals at the 1994 edition and coached South Korea at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Curaçao’s adventure is set to put players from unheralded clubs on the biggest stage. The squad that clinched qualification included players from Rotherham in England’s third-tier league, Bandırmaspor in the Turkish second division and Abha in Saudi Arabia.
Curaçao got the historic result despite not having Advocaat on the bench. He missed the match in Jamaica because he had to return to the Netherlands last weekend for family reasons.
His team saw Jamaica strike the woodwork three times in the second half in Kingston. A potentially decisive penalty kick awarded to the home team in stoppage time was overturned after a video review.
Curaçao will be joined by regional neighbors Panama and Haiti, which also booked their World Cup spots Tuesday.
Panama advanced to its second World Cup after defeating El Salvador 3-0 on first-half goals from César Blackman and Eric Davis, plus Jose Luis Rodriguez late in the game.
Panama’s only previous World Cup appearance was in 2018. It overtook Suriname, another Dutch-influenced team, which started play atop the group before losing 3-1 against Guatemala.
Haiti, a troubled Caribbean country, had a surprising campaign and beat Nicaragua 2-0 to win its group over favorites Honduras and Costa Rica, which was a quarterfinalist at the 2014 World Cup.
Haiti’s only previous trip to the World Cup was in West Germany in 1974.
The Caribbean and central American results Tuesday also finalized the six teams which will take part in the intercontinental playoffs in Mexico in March.
Two teams will qualify from the playoffs, which includes Jamaica and Suriname, plus Iraq from Asia, Congo from Africa, Bolivia from South America and New Caledonia from Oceania.
The Miss Universe pageant was already in turmoil after two judges resigned, one over allegations the competition had been rigged and another for “unforeseen personal reasons.” The chaos deepened when Jamaica’s contestant, Gabrielle Henry, fell off the stage during the preliminary evening gown round.
Henry was seen walking along the stage in a sequined orange dress, looking at the audience before falling off the main stage during the 2025 competition in Thailand.
The Miss Universe Jamaica organization said Henry was rushed to the Paolo Rangsit Hospital, where medical professionals were attending to her. The organization said she was not suffering from any life-threatening injuries after the fall.
“I was there with her family and her, and thankfully, there are no broken bones and she is under good care. She will remain under observation for the rest of the night and we will remain in touch with her family to support her,” Miss Universe pageant president Raul Rocha wrote on Instagram, saying he visited Henry in the hospital. “Our prayers go out for her prompt recovery.”
Miss Universe Jamaica, Gabrielle Alexis Henry, presents her evening gown during the 74th Miss Universe Preliminary competition on Nov. 19, 2025, in Bangkok, Thailand.(Mohan Raj/Getty)
Omar Harfouch, a Lebanese-French composer and businessman, resigned from the eight-member judging panel earlier this week, claiming a “secret vote” was held to pre-select 30 contestants out of the 136.
“This vote was carried out by individuals who are not official members of the jury, myself included. To this day, no one knows who the selected 30 are, except one individual who holds the results,” Harfouch said.
“I could not stand before the public and television cameras, pretending to legitimize a vote I never took part in. Some of the countries eliminated through this process could be at war, discriminated against, or geopolitically sensitive. Viewers would assume the jury made these decisions, and I cannot bear responsibility for a process I did not participate in. Pretending otherwise would be dishonest.”
Pianist, composer, and businessman Omar Harfouch poses during a portrait session on March 15, 2024, in Paris, France.(Eric Fougere/Corbis via Getty Images)
The Miss Universe Organization (MUO) rejected Harfouch’s allegations in an Instagram post Tuesday, saying all of its judging procedures for the 74th Miss Universe competition remain “official, transparent, and fully governed by MUO protocols.”
It added that no impromptu jury has been created, and no external group has been authorized to evaluate delegates or select finalists.
A second judge, former French soccer player Claude Makélélé, said he wouldn’t be attending the event “due to unforeseen personal reasons.”
Claude Makelele attends the UEFA Champions League match between Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid CF at Parc des Princes on Oct. 21, 2015, in Paris, France.(Xavier Laine/Real Madrid via Getty Images)
“This was a difficult decision, as I hold Miss Universe in the highest regard. The platform represents empowerment, diversity, and excellence — values I have always championed throughout my career,” Makélélé wrote on his Instagram account. “I sincerely apologise to the organisation, the contestants, and everyone involved, and I hope to be able to contribute in the future under better circumstances.”
The final day of the Miss Universe competition is November 21.
A Christian missionary father and his daughter were killed when a small plane bound for a hurricane relief mission in Jamaica crashed in a South Florida neighborhood.Christian ministry organization Ignite the Fire identified the two victims of the Monday morning crash as the group’s founder, Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena Wurm, 22.The pair were bringing humanitarian aid to Jamaica, according to the organization, when the Beechcraft King Air plane they were flying in crashed into a pond in a residential area of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs, narrowly missing homes. As of Tuesday morning, investigators had not reported any other victims. In recent weeks, Alexander Wurm had helped deliver medical supplies, water filters and StarLink satellite internet equipment to Jamaica for the relief organization Crisis Response International, according to a video statement the group posted online. “He really made a difference in the lives of the people on the ground by getting the resources in that he did. He saved lives and he gave his life,” Crisis Response International founder Sean Malone added. According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was manufactured in 1976 and its registered owner is listed as International Air Services, a company that markets itself as specializing in providing trust agreements to non-U.S. citizens that enable them to register their aircraft with the FAA. A person who answered the company’s phone Monday afternoon declined to answer questions from a reporter, stating “no comment” and ending the phone call.Posts by Alexander Wurm on social media in recent days suggested the evangelist had recently acquired the plane to further his missionary work across the Caribbean, describing the aircraft as “an older King Air with brand new engines,” and “perfect” to ferry deliveries of generators, batteries and building materials to Jamaica. Photos and videos on social media show Wurm posing for a picture in the plane’s cockpit and unloading boxes of supplies from the packed aircraft with teams of volunteers.The flight tracking website FlightAware shows the plane made four other trips to or from Jamaica in the past week, traveling between George Town in the Cayman Islands and Montego Bay and Negril in Jamaica, before landing in Fort Lauderdale on Friday. A powerful Category 5 storm, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28 and tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also caused devastation in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and prompted relief organizations to mobilize.
Christian ministry organization Ignite the Fire identified the two victims of the Monday morning crash as the group’s founder, Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena Wurm, 22.
The pair were bringing humanitarian aid to Jamaica, according to the organization, when the Beechcraft King Air plane they were flying in crashed into a pond in a residential area of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs, narrowly missing homes. As of Tuesday morning, investigators had not reported any other victims.
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In recent weeks, Alexander Wurm had helped deliver medical supplies, water filters and StarLink satellite internet equipment to Jamaica for the relief organization Crisis Response International, according to a video statement the group posted online.
“He really made a difference in the lives of the people on the ground by getting the resources in that he did. He saved lives and he gave his life,” Crisis Response International founder Sean Malone added.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was manufactured in 1976 and its registered owner is listed as International Air Services, a company that markets itself as specializing in providing trust agreements to non-U.S. citizens that enable them to register their aircraft with the FAA. A person who answered the company’s phone Monday afternoon declined to answer questions from a reporter, stating “no comment” and ending the phone call.
Posts by Alexander Wurm on social media in recent days suggested the evangelist had recently acquired the plane to further his missionary work across the Caribbean, describing the aircraft as “an older King Air with brand new engines,” and “perfect” to ferry deliveries of generators, batteries and building materials to Jamaica.
Photos and videos on social media show Wurm posing for a picture in the plane’s cockpit and unloading boxes of supplies from the packed aircraft with teams of volunteers.
The flight tracking website FlightAware shows the plane made four other trips to or from Jamaica in the past week, traveling between George Town in the Cayman Islands and Montego Bay and Negril in Jamaica, before landing in Fort Lauderdale on Friday.
A powerful Category 5 storm, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28 and tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also caused devastation in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and prompted relief organizations to mobilize.
Systems will provide capacity to support up to 36,000 people with safe water
PHOENIX, November 8, 2025 (Newswire.com)
– In the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, Planet Water Foundation, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to providing access to safe drinking water, has mobilized its Disaster Response team to Jamaica to deploy emergency water filtration systems in communities which have been severely impacted by the category 5 hurricane.
Multiple high capacity AquaBlock emergency water filtration systems have arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, aboard the largest single aid flight to reach the island since Hurricane Melissa made landfall.
Each AquaBlock system can produce up to 700 liters of safe drinking water per hour, enough to support up to 6,000 people per system. These systems will now be deployed by Planet Water Foundation team members together with deployment partner ISRATECH Jamaica in some of the hardest hit communities across the island.
“It has been heartbreaking to see the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa” said Mark Steele Founder & CEO of Planet Water Foundation. “Combined, the six AquaBlock systems which have arrived in Kingston have the capacity to support up to 36,000 people with safe water access, and our team is working tirelessly to get them into the communities that need them as quickly as possible.”
This response is made possible through the generous support of Planet Water Foundation’s corporate partners – BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), Hit Promotional Products, MCI (Motor Controls Inc), PromoCares, Royal Caribbean Group, The Starbucks Foundation, Watts Water Technologies, and Xylem.
About Planet Water Foundation
Planet Water Foundation is a non-profit organization devoted to providing access to safe drinking water. Through the installation of water filtration systems, handwashing infrastructures, and the implementation of water-health & hygiene education programs, Planet Water focuses on two critical areas: supporting schools, children, and communities in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions, as well as the provision of safe drinking water in the aftermath of natural disasters worldwide. Since 2009, Planet Water has deployed projects that provide safe water access to more than four million people across 32 countries. For more information, visit www.planet-water.org
Recovery efforts continue in Jamaica, over a week after Hurricane Melissa ravaged the island. Now a Montgomery County Council member is working to provide disaster relief.
Laurie-Anne Sayles on a call with her mother in Jamaica after she got power back following Hurricane Melissa.(Courtesy Laurie-Anne Sayles)
Laurie-Anne Sayles on a call with her mother in Jamaica after she got power back following Hurricane Melissa.(Courtesy Laurie-Anne Sayles)
Recovery efforts continue in Jamaica, over a week after Hurricane Melissa ravaged the island as a Category 5 storm. Now, a Montgomery County Council member — who’s the daughter of Jamaican immigrants — is working vigorously to provide disaster relief.
“Jamaicans understand hurricane season, but a Category 5 is not anything that they were prepared for,” said At-Large Council member Laurie-Anne Sayles.
Her mother, Hilda Williams-Sayles, had just returned to Jamaica in September after spending 25 years in Montgomery County working as a social worker. She planned to spend half the year in her home country, and Sayles was going to visit her over the holidays.
Then Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica as one of the island’s strongest storms on record.
“She’s running low on water,” Sayles said. “There’s no flights coming in or coming out of Montego Bay, so she’d have to get to Kingston. And it’s taking almost eight hours to get back and forth because of the devastation and the roads not being cleared away just yet.”
More than two dozen communities in Jamaica are still cut off by landslides and flooding. Roughly half the island remains without power. According to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, preliminary estimates show the Category 5 hurricane caused at least $6 billion in damage.
Because of the dire conditions, Sayles said she wants to bring her mother back to the U.S. as soon as possible.
“It’s hard because her heart’s there and she sees the devastation, she doesn’t want to leave. So many of us here wish we could be down there doing the hard work, helping to clean up, helping to clear roads, helping those in need,” she said through tears. “So I understand her struggle, that she doesn’t want to leave, but we’re so worried.”
In an effort to help, Sayles has partnered with Maryland Del. Jheanelle Wilkins and the Embassy of Jamaica in D.C. to collect much needed supplies for the island, including bottled water, nonperishable food, first aid kits, soap, diapers, blankets and towels.
“We cannot thank the community enough, because the response has been overwhelming,” Sayles said.
There are two drop-off locations: The Silver Spring Civic Building on Veterans Plaza and the Montgomery College Bioscience Education Center in Germantown. They’re accepting donations through Nov. 17. You can also volunteer to help sort the supplies or donate money online.
“This is Jamaica’s Hurricane Katrina,” she said. “It’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking. But we just appreciate all the love and support that we’ve received so far.”
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One viral video shows what appears to be four sharks swimming in a Jamaican hotel’s pool as floodwaters allegedly brought on by Hurricane Melissa swamp the area. Another purportedly depicts Jamaica’s Kingston airport completely ravaged by the storm. But neither of these events happened, it’s just AI-generated misinformation circulating on social media as the storm churned across the Caribbean this week.
These videos and others have racked up millions of views on social media platforms, including X, TikTok and Instagram.
Some of the clips appear to be spliced together or based on footage of old disasters. Others appear to be created entirely by AI video generators.
“I am in so many WhatsApp groups and I see all of these videos coming. Many of them are fake,” said Jamaica’s Education Minister Dana Morris Dixon on Monday. “And so we urge you to please listen to the official channels.”
Although it’s common for hoax photos, videos and misinformation to surface during natural disasters, they’re usually debunked quickly. But videos generated by new artificial intelligence tools have taken the problem to a new level by making it easy to create and spread realistic clips.
In this case, the content has been showing up in social media feeds alongside genuine footage shot by local residents and news organizations, sowing confusion among social media users.
Here are a few steps you can take to reduce your chances of getting fooled.
Check for watermarks
Look for a watermark logo indicating that the video was generated by Sora, a text-to-video tool launched by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, or other AI video generators. These will usually appear in one of the corners of a video or photo.
It is quite easy to remove these logos using third-party tools, so you can also check for blurs, pixelation or discoloration where a watermark should be.
Take a closer look
Look more closely at videos for unclear details. While the sharks-in-pool video appears realistic at first glance, it looks less believable upon closer examination because one of the sharks has a strange shape.
You might see objects that blend together, or details such as lettering on a sign that are garbled, which are telltale signs of AI-generated imagery. Branding is also something to look out for as many platforms are cautious about reproducing specific company logos.
Experts say it’s going to get increasingly harder to tell the difference between reality and deepfakes as the technology improves.
Experts noted that Melissa is the first big natural disaster since OpenAI launched the latest version of its video generation tool Sora last month.
“Now, with the rise of easily accessible and powerful tools like Sora, it has become even easier for bad actors to create and distribute highly convincing synthetic videos,” said Sofia Rubinson, a senior editor at NewsGuard, which analyzes online misinformation.
“In the past, people could often identify fakes through telltale signs like unnatural motion, distorted text, or missing fingers. But as these systems improve, many of those flaws are disappearing, making it increasingly difficult for the average viewer to distinguish AI-generated content from authentic footage.”
Why create deepfakes around a crisis?
AI expert Henry Ajder said most of the hurricane deepfakes he’s seen aren’t inherently political. He suspects it’s “much closer to more traditional kind of click-based content, which is to try and get engagement, to try and get clicks.”
On X, users can get paid based on the amount of engagement their posts get. YouTubers can earn money from ads.
A video that racks up millions of views could earn the creator a few thousand dollars, Ajder said, not bad for the amount of effort needed.
Social media accounts also use videos to expand their follower base in order to promote projects, products or services, Ajder said.
So check who’s posting the video. If the account has a track record of clickbait-style content, be skeptical.
But keep in mind that the people behind deepfake videos aren’t always trying to hide.
“Some creators are just trying to do interesting things using AI that they think are going to get people’s attention,” he said.
So who is behind the account?
While it’s unclear who exactly created the pool shark video, one version found on Instagram carries the watermark for a TikTok account, Yulian_Studios. That account’s TikTok profile describes itself, in Spanish, as a “Content creator with AI visual effects in the Dominican Republic.”
The shark video can’t be found on the account’s page, but it does have another AI-generated clip of an obese man clinging to a palm tree as hurricane winds blow in Jamaica.
Trust your gut
Context matters. Take a beat to consider whether what you’re seeing is plausible. The Poynter journalism website advises that if you see a situation that seems “exaggerated, unrealistic or not in character,” consider that it could be a deepfake.
That includes the audio. AI videos used to come with synthetic voice-overs that had unusual cadence or tone, but newer tools can create synchronized sound that sound realistic.
And if you found it on X, make sure to check whether there’s a community note attached, which is the platform’s user-powered fact-checking tool.
One version of the shark pool video on X comes with a community note that says: “This video footage and the voice used were both created by artificial intelligence, it is not real footage of hurricane Melissa in Jamaica.”
Go to an official source
Don’t just rely on random strangers on the internet for information. The Jamaican government has been posting storm updates and so has the National Hurricane Center.
The Jamaican government on Monday said at least 32 deaths have been attributed to Hurricane Melissa, with Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon saying there are possibly eight more unconfirmed deaths.
With its tourism season just a month away, officials are rushing to rebuild from the catastrophic Category 5 storm that shredded the island’s western region. Before the hurricane hit on Oct. 28, the government expected Jamaica’s tourism industry to grow by 7% this winter season and was preparing to welcome an estimated 4.3 million visitors.
Now, officials are scrambling to repair hotels and clear debris in the western half of the island in the hope of securing tourist dollars at a moment when they’re needed most.
Melissa was the most powerful hurricane to lash the island since record-keeping began 174 years ago. The National Hurricane Center said the storm initially came ashore near New Hope, on the southwestern coast of Jamaica.
People repair the roof of a resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.
Matias Delacroix / AP
Before the storm, the Jamaican government said it had done all it could to prepare. “There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness had said.
“We are still doing our assessments, but most of the damage was in the northwest and southwest,” said Christopher Jarrett, who leads the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association.
He noted that the popular Negril area in Westmoreland was spared major damage.
All international airports in Jamaica have reopened and are receiving commercial flights. But almost a week after one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record struck the western end of Jamaica, tourism officials were still trying to get a true picture of the damage to the sector — a mainstay of the island’s economy.
Jarrett said the lobby group that represents private hotels and attractions on the island is still unable to reach many of its members, especially in the western parish of Hanover, as communication and electricity services were down.
“Every individual member who was affected is doing everything to get back up and running,” he said.
In recent days, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said he expected Jamaica’s tourism sector to be back to normal by Dec. 15, the start of the island’s peak tourism season.
“It’s doable for some and not for others,” Jarrett said of the timeline, pointing out that the larger hotel chains would be able to recover quicker.
Passengers check in at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.
Matias Delacroix / AP
Jarrett, who operates the family-owned Altamont Court Hotel that has properties in Kingston and Montego Bay, said only one property in Montego Bay sustained roof damage and that repairs were underway.
Despite the disruption to the important tourism sector, Jarrett said he doesn’t expect the economic fallout to be significant. He said many hotels in the capital of Kingston and in the northern coastal town of Ocho Rios were gaining business from the influx of aid workers and volunteers in the hurricane’s aftermath.
“Right now, we’re giving discounts, between 25% and 50%, and some [hotels] are giving complimentary stays as well,” Jarrett said.
Tourism is Jamaica’s main source of foreign exchange earnings, contributing a combined 30% to gross domestic product directly and indirectly. It employs an estimated 175,000 people and is a major economic driver for other sectors in the Jamaican economy, such as construction, banking and finance, utilities and agriculture.
The disruption to the tourism sector is also affecting many providers of goods and services.
“With some of the hotels closed and most of the tourists gone, many of us are left without work. This storm didn’t just destroy buildings; it shattered jobs and incomes for many of us and our families,” said Patricia Mighten, who works in the western parish of Hanover as a hotel housekeeper.
Desrine Smith, a craft vendor who plies her trade in the resort town of Falmouth in the northwestern parish of Trelawny, echoed those sentiments.
“Going days without tourists coming to buy anything means no sales and no money. We survive on daily earnings, and now everything is uncertain,” she said. “The hurricane has impacted our pockets hard.”
Crews are still trying to access 25 isolated areas in western Jamaica as helicopters continue to drop food for them. Nearly half of all power customers remain without electricity.
For those of us who ride the commuter rails and subways daily, Saturday night’s mass stabbing on a London-bound train is a nightmare brought to life. In such confined and well-lit spaces, there isn’t any way to do what the experts say you should: run, hide and, as a last resort, fight.
A train car moving at high speed with the doors and windows closed is a violent psychopath’s dream—a veritable barrel full of unarmed, unsuspecting fish. Most of us have our heads buried in our phones, our ears distracted by music or podcasts. Some of us are poring over newspapers or dreamily watching the countryside fly by. Rarely do any of us do a threat assessment of those nearby. We are in our own little in-between place—not home, not at work. En route. Vulnerable.
NEW HOLLAND, ST. ELIZABETH, Jamaica (Reuters) -Designed to withstand 150-mph winds, the egg farm Osbourne Brumley built with his life savings in western Jamaica’s St. Elizabeth parish proved no match for Category 5 Hurricane Melissa.
On Tuesday, Melissa’s 185-mph (298-kph) winds tore across the western side of the island, damaging Brumley’s facility and killing thousands of chickens.
St. Elizabeth, considered Jamaica’s breadbasket, was left reeling after the storm, which flattened fields of yams, pumpkins, potatoes, and cassava in western Jamaica and caused losses among livestock.
The damage has stirred fears the country of 2.8 million people, where at least 28 people died because of the storm, could face shortages of food staples as farmers struggle to recover and replant.
Brumley, 69, who expects losses on his uninsured J$540-million ($3.37-million) investment, warns Melissa’s blow could trigger a “massive” egg shortage on the island.
The storm ripped the roofs from two birdhouses, collapsing the heavy metal feed silo and other equipment. With no electricity for automated feeders and staff shortages caused by the storm, Brumley fears the remaining birds will soon perish.
Brumley’s other farm in Springfield, 10 miles (16 km) away, was also destroyed. His facilities combined produced 75,000 eggs daily, supplying over 200 supermarkets across six parishes and 14 hotels.
“They’re gonna be in trouble,” he said. “There’s no other egg farm in Jamaica the size of mine.”
Before Melissa, eggs were already scarce following Hurricane Beryl, which grazed Jamaica’s southern coast in July 2024 as a Category 4 storm, damaging crops and livestock across farming parishes Clarendon, Manchester and St. Elizabeth and producing temporary shortages of vegetables and produce.
“We are going to be short on food,” said Ricardo Williams, 33, who helps his father farm cassava, corn, potatoes and pumpkins in Mitcham, St. Elizabeth.
Other farmers agreed, saying livestock losses and destroyed fields mean some crops will not return until at least February, and that where produce survives, some prices could double.
Agriculture Minister Floyd Green said Melissa will have “a crippling effect on our agricultural sector” because some of the hardest-hit parishes are also the most productive. A fuller scope of the damage, he added, will not be known until assessments are completed this week.
Once the evaluation is done, Green said, a disaster-recovery task force will devise a plan to boost output from the least-affected parishes. Assistance will also come from international partners and Jamaica’s disaster-insurance funds. The country, in the interim, will rely more on imports, such as liquid eggs, to stabilize supplies.
“It’s not going to be a quick recovery,” Green acknowledged, but he expressed confidence in the resilience of farmers. “Once you provide them with opportunity and make it easy for them to start again, then they will.”
(Reporting by Zahra Burton and Maria Alejandra Cardona in St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle and Rod Nickel)
Rescuers and aid workers fanned out across Jamaica on Saturday to distribute food and water and reach communities still isolated four days after Hurricane Melissa hit the island.
One of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall, Melissa has been blamed for at least 19 deaths in Jamaica, 31 in nearby Haiti, and at least one death in the Dominican Republic. Melissa made landfall in southwest Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane with top winds of 185 mph.
An aerial view shows damaged buildings in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, Jamaica, on Oct. 31, 2025.
RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images
Health Minister Christopher Tufton recognized that the death toll in Jamaica was probably higher as many places are still hard to access, but said that it would be unwise to speculate.
Less than half the island has communications, and nearly 400 water systems were knocked out by the storm.
The U.S. Army deployed three CH-47 Chinook helicopters to Jamaica Friday for humanitarian and disaster relief efforts, with another five helicopters on the way.
According to Agence-France Presse, Jamaican officials on Saturday also announced plans to set up multiple field hospitals after several hospitals in western Jamaica were especially hard-hit by the storm.
“That facility will come fully equipped, which will include an operating theater and other critical diagnostic equipment, and some team members to support the local team,” Tufton said in a briefing Saturday, according to AFP, adding that officials expect the hospital to be up and running in the coming week.
There were desperate scenes in Montego Bay, as residents lined up to get food, water and cash. Many U.S. tourists are still working to make their way home. The Florida-based nonprofit Gray Bull Rescue Foundation found a way to get 341 American citizens back from two very hard-hit Montego Bay resorts.
Essential relief supplies are now rolling into hurricane-stricken St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland, most of which had been cut off by fallen concrete posts and trees strewn across roads.
But in some parts, people were forced to dip buckets into rivers, collecting the muddy water for everyday use, while others have been drinking coconut water and roasting breadfruit.
In Westmoreland, mangled metal sheets, splintered wooden frames of houses and fragments of furniture littered the coastline.
Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr. was among several convoys of emergency responders en route to deliver ready-to-eat meals, water, tarpaulins, blankets, medicine and other essentials.
“The priority now is to get help to those who need it,” said Charles Jr. during a brief stop en route to Black River for the first time with long-awaited relief supplies. Prime Minister Andrew Holness had declared Black River ground zero and said the town will have to be rebuilt.
The Jamaica Defense Force set up a satellite disaster relief site at the Luana community center near Black River where care packages are being dispatched to hurricane-stricken residents.
Many have been without vital supplies since Tuesday and quickly converged around a JDF truck as word spread that relief supplies were being distributed in the sweltering afternoon sun.
“Everyone is homeless right now,” Rosemarie Gayle said. “Thank you, thank you. I can’t say thank you enough,” she said, as she accepted a package of rice, beans, sardines, powdered milk, cooking oil and other essentials.
A vehicle drives through a damaged area in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, on Oct. 31, 2025, in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.
RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images
Melissa has left devastation in its wake, snapping power lines and toppling buildings, disrupting food and water distribution and destroying crop fields.
Satellite photographs showed the southwestern Jamaican fishing village of White House and the nearby town of Black River before and after Melissa slammed into the island. Each pair captures a once vibrant-looking town reduced to dirt and rubble.
Some people have been walking for miles in search of basic goods and to check on loved ones, as more than 60% of the island remained without power. Helicopters have been dropping food in cut-off communities.
“People are in shock and they’re waiting on relief,” said World Vision’s national director of domestic humanitarian and emergency affairs Mike Bassett, who traveled to the town of Santa Cruz in St. Elizabeth on Friday.
“The biggest needs are clean water, tarps for roof damage, canned proteins, hygiene and cleaning supplies,” he said.
On Saturday, the United Nations’ World Food Program received 2,000 boxes of emergency food assistance shipped from Barbados, to be distributed in shelters and in the most-affected communities in the St. Elizabeth area.
“They will help meet the needs of 6,000 people for one week,” said communications officer for WFP Alexis Masciarelli.
Tufton also warned about the risk of increased mosquitoes, waterborne diseases and food poisoning. “Please discard spoiled food,” he said.
A U.S. regional disaster assistance response team was on the ground after being activated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this week, the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica said.
“The United States stands with Jamaica as they respond to the impacts of the hurricane and remains prepared to swiftly deliver emergency relief items,” it said.
Dorothy Headley, 75, prepares a meal of cow liver over a wood fire as damaged property is seen in the background in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in the Watercress community of Westmoreland, Jamaica, on Oct. 31, 2025.
RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images
Jamaica’s Water and Environment Minister Matthew Samuda took to the social media platform X in a desperate bid to find tarpaulin after Melissa tore off scores of roofs on homes in western Jamaica. X users chimed in to help, indicating where they had seen supplies.
Falmouth, a popular fishing spot on Jamaica’s north coast, had suffered significant damage including flooding and flattened buildings, Holness said on Saturday.
“Our immediate priority is to restore electricity and telecommunications and to ensure that essential services, particularly at the Falmouth Hospital, are stabilized,” he said on X, adding that Jamaica would rebuild “stronger and wiser.”
Following the devastation, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility said that it would make a record payout to Jamaica of $70.8 million.
The facility enables countries to pool their individual risks to provide affordable coverage against natural disasters. The payout will be made within 14 days, the group said on Friday.
Finance Minister Fayval Williams said Thursday that the CCRIF insurance policy was just one part of the government’s financial plan to respond to natural disasters. She pointed to a contingencies fund, a national natural disaster reserve and a catastrophe bond.
Government officials have said damage assessment is still ongoing.
TOPSHOT – An aerial view seen October 29, 2025 shows the destroyed Black River Market and surrounding buildings following the passage the previous day of Hurricane Melissa in Black River, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. Hurricane Melissa bore down on the Bahamas October 29 after cutting a path of destruction through the Caribbean, leaving 30 people dead or missing in Haiti and parts of Jamaica and Cuba in ruins. Somewhat weakened but still threatening, Melissa will bring damaging winds and flooding rains to the Bahamas Wednesday before moving on to Bermuda late Thursday, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC). (Photo by Ricardo Makyn / AFP) (Photo by RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images)
RICARDO MAKYN
AFP via Getty Images
As Jamaica slowly recovers from the most catastrophic hurricane to hit the country, more than two dozen Floridians stranded there have been rescued and returned home Saturday afternoon, officials said.
Hurricane Melissa killed at least 19 people in Jamaica and left thousands in the country without power, water or internet. It leveled entire neighborhoods, including multiple hospitals. Amongst the wreckage, 28 Floridians were caught in the storm and left stranded.
Around 3 p.m. Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X that a rescue flight had landed in Tampa with those Floridians who had been in Jamaica. The Florida Division of Emergency Management and other officials have been devising a plan to rescue the 28 since they learned of their presence in Jamaica on Thursday.
On Thursday, I learned of Florida residents who were stranded in Jamaica in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, a category 5 storm. At my direction, @FLSERT and other state officials immediately went to work on a plan to get them home.
The hurricane also ravished Haiti and Cuba. The death toll in Haiti climbed to at least 30 people with 20 more still missing. Melissa doused the region with rain, submerging farms and triggering fatal floods.
While no deaths have been reported in Cuba, 735,000 people were evacuated before Melissa hit five provinces that exposed more than 3 million people to deadly conditions.
Miami Herald Cops and Breaking News Reporter Devoun Cetoute covers a plethora of Florida topics, from breaking news to crime patterns. He was on the breaking news team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022. He’s a graduate of the University of Florida, born and raised in Miami-Dade. Theme parks, movies and cars are on his mind in and out of the office.
Jamaicans are lining up for food, water and cash days after Hurricane Melissa slammed the Caribbean island. Meanwhile, some American tourists are still trying to make their way home.
