When Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, she did more than rip through roofs and uproot trees — she tore at the fabric of Jamaica’s economy and the country’s will to recover.

With winds surpassing 180 mph and torrential rains that pounded the island for over 12 hours, Melissa carved a path of destruction from St Thomas to Westmoreland. The devastation was swift, merciless; homes were flattened, crops destroyed, roads rendered impassable, thousands of citizens displaced, and the unfortunate loss of lives — the storm was merciless, but not entirely unexpected. Yet amid the loss, Jamaicans showed what they always do in times of crisis — resilience, solidarity, and faith. But as we begin the long road to recovery, one truth stands clear: Economic recovery must go together with risk reduction. As the winds of Hurricane Melissa subside and Jamaicans begin to assess the full extent of the damage, one message echoes across the island: We cannot rebuild the same way again. The question before us now is not simply When do we rebuild, but are we rebuilding smarter and more resiliently?

Risk reduction must therefore be an integral part of recovery. This means embedding disaster preparedness, climate adaptation, and resilience planning into every reconstruction project and policy decision. Economic growth that ignores risk is fragile; growth that integrates resilience is sustainable.

The Link Between Recovery and Resilience — Economic recovery is often seen as a race — to get businesses reopened, jobs restored, and productivity restarted. Yet, when recovery efforts overlook risk reduction, they may simply rebuild the same vulnerabilities that made the disaster so devastating in the first place.

History has taught us this hard lesson. After Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and most recently Hurricane Beryl in 2024, Jamaica poured billions into reconstruction — yet many of the same communities remain vulnerable today. If Hurricane Melissa’s devastation becomes another chapter in that cycle, then we will have failed to learn. Building back as before means rebuilding our weaknesses. Rebuilding with risk reduction means creating economic and social systems strong enough to withstand future storms.

Shifting From Relief to Resilience — Recovery begins with relief — getting food, water, and shelter to those affected. But real recovery begins when the focus shifts from relief to resilience. That transition requires planning, partnership, and a new mindset.

• In infrastructure: Rebuild homes and public facilities to hurricane-resistant standards. Drainage systems must be upgraded, not patched. Roads must be engineered to withstand flooding and landslides. Investing in resilient infrastructure, enforcing building codes, relocating high-risk settlements, and rebuilding out of harmed flood plains and steep gullies rather than simply replacing what the waters washed away.

• In agriculture: Support farmers to replant with climate-resilient crops, adopting climate-smart techniques and invest in irrigation, storage, and insurance to protect livelihoods.

• In business: Develop financial safety nets, access to insurance, access to emergency credit lines and accessible insurance for small and medium enterprises. Encourage digital tools that help businesses continue operating during crises.

• In governance: Ensure that every recovery plan includes disaster risk management and climate adaptation measures as mandatory criteria — not optional add-ons, integrate risk into our national economic planning, not treating disaster preparedness as a side project.

• In technology: Use GIS, drones, and data analytics for damage assessment, apply mobile platforms for relief coordination and information sharing and promote renewable energy and smart infrastructure solutions.

Resilience is not a cost — It is an economic investment — The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimates that every dollar invested in prevention saves up to seven dollars in future losses. In economic terms, resilience is not a cost — it is a savings account for the nation’s future. If Jamaica allocates its recovery funds with resilience in mind, it can turn tragedy into transformation.

A Future Worth Rebuilding — Hurricane Melissa will take its place in Jamaica’s history as one of the most powerful storms to ever strike the island. But it can also mark a turning point — the moment we finally made resilience central to our economic and social planning.

If we rebuild with risk reduction at the heart of our recovery, then we will not only rise again — we will rise stronger, safer, and more secure than before.

A Call to Action — Jamaica and other Caribbean nations, can no longer treat risk reduction as an afterthought or a separate agenda. It must be woven into the very fabric of development planning and public investment. To our political leaders, public officials, private sector, business community and citizens: the time to embed resilience is now. As Melissa tests us, we must commit to the following:

•Allocating recovery funds with explicit criteria for resilience and risk reduction.

•Enforcing building standards, land use planning and infrastructure design that anticipate hazards, not ignore them.

•Mobilising the private sector in building resilient supply chains, safe workplaces and robust enterprises.

• Supporting communities to become active participants in risk reduction — from early warning to evacuation and from local planning to recovery leadership.

Conclusion

After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Japan focused on community rebuilding, psychological support, and earthquake-resistant structures. Strong coordination between government, private sector, and citizens led to sustainable long-term recovery. For Jamaica, the story must be of transformation; economic recovery without risk reduction is like building on shifting sands. If we rebuild wisely, we lay the foundation for prosperity that can withstand storms, not just survive them. Let’s commit not just to recovery — but to resilience.

David Hall is the Managing Director, DC Consultants and Associates, an International Consulting firm which provides services in business transformation through implementing Effective Governance, Risk Management and Internal Controls.