The Government is looking to rush emergency supplies, including food and water, to the six parishes and more than 170 communities most severely impacted by Hurricane Melissa over the next 48 hours.

Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie told a media briefing held at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) on Thursday that the six worst-hit parishes are St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St James, Trelawny, Hanover, and Manchester.

“Over 170 communities within these parishes have been moderately or severely affected by flooding, land slippage and other aspects of Hurricane Melissa,” McKenzie said.

“We’re making arrangements to get igloos with ice, water, and food supplies to these affected areas. Over the next two days, a massive relief programme between ODPEM, the Ministry of Labour and our partners will intensify to get relief supplies to the various communities,” he added.

McKenzie also said that 117 members of the Disaster Assistance Response (DART) team of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) have been deployed to assist with search and rescue operations “and they’re en route making clearance, distributing food packages along with the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Fire Brigade in many communities that are inaccessible”.

He said the relief operation continues in collaboration with national and international partners, including the World Food Programme, UNICEF, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CEDEMA), the Red Cross, Salvation Army and thousands of well-thinking Jamaicans.

The disaster coordinator said the authorities will shortly provide an update on the number of deaths while being cautious about providing any numbers.

“I’ve been hearing some stories that I don’t want to repeat and I’m not going to repeat those stories because the police have not confirmed those reports. What I will say is that we do anticipate, based on our information, that there will be more. But I’m asking persons to only respond to the official statement coming out of the ODPEM or from the Minister of Information [Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon] who will receive that information and will provide them to the public,” said McKenzie.

The official death toll from Melissa is eight — three people died while making preparations for the hurricane while five, including a baby, died during the hurricane.

For her part, Morris Dixon said, “The JDF does have a helicopter that will be going out that will retrieve whatever bodies are there but we have to confirm them before we can give you numbers and we’re actively working to do that right now”.

“We get a lot of reports about potential bodies, we’re not sure, they have to verify this and so we have a helicopter that’s been dedicated, that’s going to be doing that really very difficult work. Obviously we continue to pray that we will not have to recover many bodies but just to know that the JDF is doing everything it can to get there and to do what is necessary,” Morris Dixon added.

Meanwhile, the world continues to rush to Jamaica’s aid as more apocalyptic images of the devastation caused by the hurricane, which made landfall in the south-western end of the island on October 28, continues to emerge.

“We’re actually starting to get food out into the affected areas as best as possible, [and] we will continue to do that,” said Morris Dixon.

“There are many international development partners and agencies that are working with us. The World Central Kitchen is one that is doing quite a lot of work. They’ve done over 100 million food packages around the world last year, and they are on their way to Jamaica; they actually have already started. I know they have a partnership with Island Grill and they were distributing food already.”

Morris Dixon said World Central Kitchen will work alongside trainee chefs from HEART/NSTA Trust. “They did 6,400 meals yesterday (Wednesday), 20,000 today (Thursday), and 100,000 per day is what they’re trying to do,” she shared.

Morris Dixon said other partners were due in the island on Thursday, with some bringing specialist helicopters that are designed to deliver food in areas that are cut off.

“We’re going to be able to drop food items; even if we cannot get there by road, we’re working hard to get food to people and water as is necessary,” the minister said.

As of Thursday, all three international airports — Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) in Kingston, Ian Fleming International in St Mary, and Sangster International in Montego Bay — have begun receiving flights bringing cargo and relief supplies, with NMIA also receiving a number of commercial flights.

It was on one of those first flights into NMIA Thursday morning that a delegation from the Cayman Islands arrived, led by Premier André Ebanks carrying more than US$200,000 worth of relief supplies.

Ebanks, who was accompanied by several Government ministers and the leader of the Opposition, pledged an additional US$1.2 million worth of supplies to Jamaica.

Morris Dixon said Trinidad and Tobago has also offered support.

In the meantime, Morris Dixon said the harbour master declared Kingston Harbour opened at 7:00 am Thursday. She said there are many entities that want to ship goods to Jamaica and so the process of reopening the harbour started on Wednesday. The information minister also shared that storage charges on containers for the period that the terminals were closed have been waived until November 2.

MIAMI, United States — Volunteers assemble relief packages for Jamaica at the Global Empowerment Mission headquarters in Miami, Florida, on October 27, 2024 ahead of Hurricane Melissa’s assault on Jamaica. (Photo: AFP)