Country: Jamaica Sources: Caribbean Community Secretariat, World Food Programme Please refer to the attached file. Context Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on 28 October 2025 as a Category 5 storm, causing catastrophic damage across the country and marking the most powerful hurricane in the island’s recorded history. The hurricane caused significant damage particularly in the western and north-western parishes. The storm triggered widespread flooding, landslides, and road blockages, crippling critical infrastructure including hospitals, schools, roads, and telecommunications networks. Following Hurricane Melissa, Real-Time Monitoring coverage was scaled up significantly, from just over 500 observations before the event (January – October 2025) to over 7, 216 calls post-event. This expansion greatly improves visibility on emerging trends, though results should still be considered indicative rather than fully representative at parish level until sample sizes grow further. Eight months after Hurricane Melissa, food security conditions show partial but uneven recovery, with several indicators improving from their immediate post-storm peaks but remaining above pre-Melissa levels. Insufficient food consumption is still roughly double the baseline, crisis-level food-based coping has risen again to around 22%, and moderate or severe food insecurity remains elevated at 46%. Livelihood stress and market access constraints also persist, indicating that recovery remains fragile and that affected communities, particularly in the hardest-hit western and north-western parishes, continue to face heightened food security risk as they work toward long-term recovery.
Jamaica: Food Security Monitoring Impact of Hurricane Melissa – Eight Months On
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