RESIDENTS URGED TO COOPERATE WITH AUTHORITIES AMIDST THE APPROACH OF TROPICAL STORM MELISSA
Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, during his address at a press briefing in preparation for Tropical Storm Melissa, held at the Office of the Prime Minister on Wednesday (October 22), urged citizens to cooperate with Authorities. The meeting included several heads of agencies and government Ministries who provided updates on the country’s state of readiness.
Minister McKenzie called on citizens to obey the Authorities and cited that only necessities such as medications should be taken to the shelters if needs be.
“Take heed of the various instructions that are given. We have already fast-tracked the necessary arrangements when the system comes…I am going to urge people, if and when the shelters are activated, to only take the basic things to the shelters”
The Minister also used the opportunity to call on residents of Port Royal to be compliant if relocation becomes necessary. Port Royal, in the past, has been adversely affected by natural disasters and so the Minister asked that they cooperate with the authorities if they are asked to leave their homes.
“I am making a special appeal to the people in Port Royal, if we are impacted by this event, it is going to be important that the community of Port Royal make arrangements when we provide the requisite transportation for them to be relocated to shelters, that they comply,” he said.
I will be speaking with the Member of Parliament Philip Paulwell, because it is [an] area that is of great concern to us” he added.
Minister McKenzie said that the Municipal Corporations along with Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is ready to face whatever challenges that the country might experience as a result of the Storm.
Acting Director General of the ODPEM, Richard Thompson said that the disaster mechanism at both the parish level and the national level are on standby as the agency continues to monitor the progress of the storm.
Last evening, ODPEM held an Operation Planning Meeting with stakeholders to discuss preparation plans and state of readiness in the event the weather system worsens or hits the island.
“Those presentations in terms of our state of readiness look at our infrastructure, looking at our humanitarian processes, looking at our overall national response processes… we have gone through a process in terms of mapping out a comprehensive network for disaster communication supported by JICA,” Thompson added.
Last year, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), invested more than $2 billion in a project aimed at developing Jamaica’s national emergency communication system in the event there is an outage of the main communication network on the island.
He also noted that the planning meetings will continue into the weekend to keep the country up-to-date, and to ensure that the necessary protocols are activated to safeguard the wellbeing of citizens.
Mr. Thompson stated that enough comfort and relief items are available to supply shelters should the storm become a threat to Jamaica. He added that this was a part of the agency’s shelter management process which is a collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security as well as other Non-Government Organizations (NGOs).
Melissa is the 13th weather system to form since the start of the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season but is the first to pose a risk to Jamaica. According to the Meteorological Service of Jamaica, Melissa is slowly moving northwest and is expected to bring rainfall to Jamaica and Hispaniola over the next week 48 hours.
