Lead Stories

Steve Brown, uncle of Monique Coke, who died during the passage of Hurricane Melissa when their home was ripped apart by fierce winds in Waterworks, Petersfield, Westmoreland.
December 9, 2025

A Westmoreland family’s deadly fight against the storm

A Westmoreland family’s desperate attempt to escape the stinging conditions of Hurricane Melissa ended in tragedy when the house they were fleeing from crumbled, killing 18-year-old Monique Coke. The…
Mount Hermon United Church in Westmoreland.
December 9, 2025 by Janet Silvera

Faith shaken, not broken

WESTERN BUREAU: Hurricane Melissa has shattered hundreds of Jamaica’s churches, from wooden chapels tucked in sugar-belt villages to grand cathedrals that survived slavery and emancipation. The storm…
Members of the Jamaica Defence Force hand out care packages to residents of Crane Road in St Elizabeth.
December 9, 2025 by Livern Barrett

First steps to relief

Three separate vehicles carrying food, water and other basic supplies drew long lines of residents desperate to get anything as night fell over the hurricane-ravaged town of Black River, St Elizabeth,…
Rose Holness shows the damage to her home in St James.
December 9, 2025 by Andre Williams

Mud splash

A drowning woman clutched her United States and Canada visas before being rescued by a neighbour as water levels rose to her breast in what turned out to be unprecedented volumes covering ground…
Floyd Green, minister of agriculture, fisheries and mining, toured sections of St Elizabeth yesterday.
December 9, 2025 by Ashanti Lawson

Agri minister warns of severe crop losses as St Elizabeth struggles to recover

Jamaica’s food supply has taken a direct hit from Hurricane Melissa, with farmlands flattened, markets empty, and the country’s top crop, yam, facing what Agriculture Minister Floyd Green calls “a…
Evan Thompson, principal director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica.
December 9, 2025 by Tanesha Mundle

‘That would really surprise me’

Evan Thompson, principal director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica, has scoffed at online conspiracy theories that the island’s recent hurricane was “manufactured”, declaring that such an idea…
Superintendent of Police Coleridge Minto (right), head of the St Elizabeth Police, speaks with The Gleaner at the Black River Police Station on Thursday. Looking on are Sergeant Arleen McBean, chairman of the Police Federation, and Assistant Commissioner o
December 9, 2025 by Tiffany Pryce

Detainees safe and secure at Black River Police Station

Despite extensive flooding and structural damage across St Elizabeth, no detainees were harmed at the Black River Police Station during the passage of Hurricane Melissa, which battered the parish…
News
December 9, 2025

Experts warn of public health emergency after storm

Although Hurricane Melissa has passed, public health professionals are warning that Jamaicans are not yet out of danger as catastrophic disease outbreaks and a worsening of existing medical conditions…
Residents of Black River and surrounding communities descend on the shopping district of the St Elizabeth capital in search of food and other supplies last Thursday.
December 9, 2025 by Tiffany Pryce

Desperation turns to disorder

What was once the commercial heartbeat of St Elizabeth has now been reduced to devastation and desperation. In the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, widespread looting has gripped Black River, as…