Kingston, Jamaica — 24 February 2026
Jamaica does not need to be taught the language of recovery. We speak it fluently.
It is there in the first clatter of hammers after the winds pass. In the scent of wet timber drying in the sun. In the blue tarpaulin stretched tight across a roofline, waiting its turn to become something more permanent. In the slow return of electricity, the hum of refrigerators, the steady trickle of running water through pipes that held.
We have lived this before.
We lived it after Hurricane Gilbert tore across the island in 1988 — a storm so fierce it reshaped not only skylines but national memory. We lived it again in later years, when other systems came through with different names but similar force. And most recently, we lived it in 2025, when Hurricane Melissa crossed Jamaica on 28 October as a Category 5 hurricane, leaving western parishes especially hard hit.
The Bank of Jamaica now suggests that economic activity could return to “full” recovery within two to t…
