As Jamaica transitions from emergency response to recovery, Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr has confirmed that, as of Wednesday, 17,000 household damage assessments have been completed, with 96 per cent already uploaded to the national Jamaica Household Damage, Impact and Needs Assessment (JHDINA) system.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the minister said the figures signal a major step forward in understanding the full extent of the devastation left by Hurricane Melissa, while also providing the data needed to shape the next phase of support for affected families.

Charles Jr stressed that the assessment process has been strengthened significantly since Hurricane Beryl earlier this year, with improved tools, larger teams, and a more coordinated national approach. He noted that the upgraded JHDINA platform has already transformed the speed and accuracy of the assessment exercise.

“This approach allows for us to have significantly greater efficiency and accuracy in the collection process. It’s not only faster, because as you use the tablet or the phone with the application it’s immediately uploaded, and so it eliminates the need for that data re-entry, but it also eliminates the mistakes that come with having to move data from one place to the next,” he said.

According to the minister, teams are now conducting door-to-door evaluations daily across multiple parishes, supported by ongoing training to expand the number of personnel in the field.

“I think we trained yesterday, and we’re training today, and we’re training tomorrow, and we continue to train, because our effort is to expand the boots on the ground so that we can get as many assessments done as possible,” he added.

Furthermore, Charles Jr said that one of the most significant upgrades is the ability to capture geotagged photographs during household visits.

He noted that this change has added transparency and reduced subjectivity in reporting damage.

“When I previously would go and say to you in my subjective mind that there is massive destruction…that now can be reconciled, because the tool allows us to capture images and retain also GPS coordinates,” he explained.

The ministry has also introduced Jamaica’s first disaster self-reporting platform, a web-based system that allows households missed during field visits to submit their information online.

“So what we’re doing, based on the knowledge that we’ve gained from Beryl in using this tool is we also note as we go through the persons who are not there. For them we have developed a self-reporting mechanism to complement what we do on the ground, in terms of using the JHDINA tool, so that those persons who we have missed or those persons who were missing, we can find them or give you a platform to let us know that you too have been impacted,” he explained.

To support real-time data uploads, the ministry has also installed Starlink Internet systems in all parish offices — an intervention prompted by widespread connectivity challenges in several parishes. Charles Jr said the improved connectivity has already strengthened the national response.

The minister emphasised that effective coordination with Members of Parliament (MPs), local authorities, and humanitarian partners remains essential as the country moves into the recovery stage. He underscored a strict policy requiring collaboration at every level, saying the approach is necessary to avoid duplication and to ensure support reaches those most in need.

“We are streamlining the collective efforts to ensure that we mitigate and eliminate duplication and we advance and increase efficiency. So our parish managers will be consulting with Members of Parliament and we’ll be providing the schedule of the visits on a weekly and daily, if needed, basis, providing the list of persons that have been supported in whatever various way and the assessments that have been done, and we would ask also that the constituency leaders, the MPs, also similarly provide information to us,” he said.

In the immediate term, the ministry’s priorities include sustaining daily relief dispatches, supporting the Jamaica Defence Force’s missions to isolated communities, and continuing targeted aid to seniors, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, and infants. The broader goal, Charles Jr said, is to shift from emergency relief to structured economic and social recovery.

“We are going to rapidly advance the completion of household assessments, particularly, as I said, in that order of priority, from shelters to hardest-hit communities, with a strong focus now on expanding our team, on training persons, and on getting on the ground daily,” he said.

With thousands of assessments still to be completed and reconstruction yet to begin, the minister urged patience while assuring the public that relief efforts remain guided by verified data.

Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr giving an update on the ministry’s post-Melissa recovery efforts at a press conference on Thursday. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)