Forbes magazine correspondent Mr Richard Fowler, after seeing the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Melissa on Jamaica on October 28, 2025, was moved to write:

“In 1965, upon receiving the key to the Jamaican capital city of Kingston, Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr reflected on his visit, saying; ‘In Jamaica, I feel like a human being.’ He went on to share that he was proud to be among ‘brothers and sisters on this wonderful island’.

“Sixty years later, that same island — the place that once offered refuge to a weary civil rights leader — is again testing the limits of its humanity and resilience… Though the entire island felt its fury, the storm made landfall along the island’s south-west coast… a region too often left out of glossy tourism brochures but rich in culture, farmland, and working-class grit.”

It is that grit, resilience, and humanity that has powered Jamaicans living overseas to dispatch so much hurricane relief supplies to their homeland as to cause concern among them that the ports in Kingston and Montego Bay are overwhelmed.

The headline on an article in the Jamaica Observer this Sunday, titled ‘Massive relief response from Diaspora clogs Jamaican ports’, reported that Jamaican organisations and individuals across the United States “are fretful that relief supplies to assist with post-Hurricane Melissa restoration and recovery work may not reach many of those in need in a timely manner”.

It’s a case of an embarrassment of riches, as the backlog at the ports is caused, not by incompetence or laziness, but by substantial increases in cargo shipped to the island since the deadly Category 5 hurricane.

The situation has been made worse by the fact that this is normally the busiest time on the ports when many Jamaicans ship barrels home for the Christmas season, a traditional practice that not even the planet’s worst hurricane could stop.

Nonetheless, this overwhelming of the ports by relief supplies is one more thing that should be noted as we reconstruct and rebuild using the cruel lessons left in Melissa’s angry winds and rains.

Another important point not to be overlooked is the claim by an activist that many local groups in Jamaica promised people in the Diaspora they would clear and pick up the items, but are not doing so. Those unclaimed containers are piling up on the ports, creating a traffic jam in the system.

He made a useful suggestion that responsible organisations in Jamaica should collaborate with counterparts overseas to clear shipments, thus preventing people in the Diaspora from travelling to Jamaica with the prospect of losing days — and money — waiting to clear relief items.

Of course, it will be necessary, as well, that the ports are properly manned for times like these, through temporary employment — as we imagine they must do each Christmas season.

Furthermore, Jamaicans overseas should not, by any means, be discouraged from sending relief. Despite the massive mobilisation already in place, the need is still great and the assistance will be needed for some time yet.

We wish to commend our Diaspora for the extraordinary show of support, setting up collection points mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada for receiving essential supplies and funds, partnering with local charities and supporting medical/relief organisations.