The United States Government has deepened its support for Jamaica’s disaster response, announcing an additional US$10 million in humanitarian assistance to support the island’s recovery from Hurricane Melissa, bringing Washington’s total contribution to US$22 million.

The announcement was made on Monday by Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs and Religious Freedom Jeremy Lewin, during a meeting with Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Andrew.

Lewin said the latest commitment reflected his country’s unwavering partnership with Jamaica, describing the island as one of America’s “oldest and closest allies”.

“We formed a disaster response team even before the hurricane made landfall. They were able to get here within a day as soon as the airports and air infrastructure allowed them to come. We brought search and rescue teams from LA (Los Angeles) and Fairfax County, 70 personnel… they had dogs and chainsaws and they’re experts at sort of moving roads, finding people, rescuing them from difficult situations and then almost immediately we started bringing humanitarian assistance in from our hubs, activating our network of partners,” said Lewin.

He further explained that the response operation was one of the largest US-led humanitarian efforts in the region in recent years, mobilising both civilian and military resources to reach communities cut off by the storm.

“We were able to bring in heavy lift helicopters, nearly 100 military personnel. They’ve moved more than half a million pounds of life-saving aid, and that was this morning, and now they’re doing a few more flights so it’s going to be way more, and so their work continues and our work continues,” he said.

The additional US$10 million, he noted, would go directly towards providing critical life-saving assistance to Jamaicans still struggling to recover from the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa which slammed into the island’s south-western coast on October 28 and marched across western parishes to exit on the north-western coast.

“The financial commitments are very significant and help underscore just how important Jamaica is to the United States and to the secretary [of state]. Jamaican people, like our people, are proud and resilient, and we have every faith that they will rebound quickly and build back even better,” he said.

Lewin emphasised that the United States support would remain consistent throughout the different stages of Jamaica’s recovery, pledging a continued presence long after the immediate relief phase has ended.

“We will be here tomorrow, we will be here next month, we’ll be here for every stage of this recovery,” he assured.

Prime Minister Holness, in expressing his gratitude, commended the US for its swift and comprehensive response to the disaster. He said the early assistance had been vital in saving lives and delivering essential supplies to areas completely cut off by flood waters and landslides.

“The United States was one of the first responders of our international partners who would have come to give support and that support was particularly invaluable, particularly in the logistics operations, which your helicopters would have augmented. There are many communities in Jamaica that would have been marooned and the only way to get to them would have been through the capacity for airlift. We do have some airlift capacity in the JDF (Jamaica Defence Force), but certainly none in comparison to the United States fleet,” said Holness.

He added that the additional financial assistance would strengthen ongoing humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts but cautioned that the scale of destruction was immense and that Jamaica’s full recovery would require sustained international and local cooperation.