By Shamar Blunt
Hurricane Melissa should be treated as a turning point in how the Caribbean plans for and responds to late‐season tropical systems, said the head of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), as Jamaica faced its most intense storm in history.
Executive Director Elizabeth Riley said Jamaica’s encounter with the violent Category 5 cyclone must be treated as a turning point for how the region plans and responds to late‐season tropical systems that are rapidly becoming more violent and less predictable.
Giving an update on the damage in Jamaica and the regional response, Riley stressed that Melissa made landfall as among the most intense hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic.
“I want to set Melissa a bit in context. Melissa is one of the strongest hurricanes which has ever taken place in the Atlantic basin, and we must not lose sight of that,” Riley said, adding that the storm’s unusual features challenged traditional planning assumptions.
“In the days leading up, if persons were watching the models and following the science, which we do, there were very divergent opinions with respect to what Melissa was actually going to do. When this happens, we have to run a series of scenarios… unfortunately, the scenario of a direct impact to Jamaica is what played out.”
She stressed that Melissa did not only bring record winds but also an unusual rainfall threat.
“We saw statistics as high as 30 to 40 inches of rainfall being forecast both for regions in Jamaica as well as the southern peninsula in Haiti. This is incredibly unusual, but what it does say is that all of the guidance that has been given by our climate scientists is absolutely on point,” she said. “We have recognised that the precipitation patterns within cyclones are changing as a result of climate change… the types of systems that we now have to prepare for are very different to the systems that we traditionally have prepared for.”
That shift is already shaping the region’s approach. CDEMA’s current 2022-2027 strategy includes a deliberate push to build the next level of the regional response mechanism.
“We’re very cognisant of the fact that the hazards are changing. They’re changing radically, and they’re moving into the space of the extreme, and we have to revisit the types of arrangements that we have in the region,” she said.
Riley also defended Caribbean governments against claims that populations are caught unprepared, noting, “Our governments take these matters very seriously, and I don’t think any of us could say that the governments of the Caribbean do not spend a lot of time trying to educate populations… around preparedness actions.”
On questions of relief timing, she explained that CDEMA deliberately waits for proper assessments before executing deployments.
“This is not unusual in the aftermath of any disaster event… it cannot be rushed,” she said.
The agency is drawing on its full network of 20 participating states: “There are many states with personnel on standby.”
While she did not give a firm start date, Riley confirmed that a French military vessel is currently being loaded with relief supplies at the regional logistics hub in Barbados for shipment to Jamaica.
