There are moments in a nation’s life when the clock seems to stop ticking. Not literally, of course — time carries on — but everything familiar, everything predictable, everything routine is suddenly suspended. In the wake of Hurricane Melissa, Jamaica entered one of those moments.
For many Jamaicans, Melissa was not just a storm. It was a line in the sand. Before. After.
The truth is plain: Jamaica has survived many hurricanes, but Melissa left a different kind of mark. This was not simply a weather event; it was a national shockwave that tore through the electrical grid, telecommunications networks, housing stock, livelihoods, and the psychological well-being of our people. And as the days stretched into weeks, that shockwave reshaped the very landscape of real estate, development, and community life.
Whether you lived in Kingston, St. Thomas, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, Clarendon, St. James, or anywhere in between, you felt it. And even now, as the country claws its way back to steady …
