NEW YORK, USA — Multiple Jamaican organisations and individuals across the United States are hurrying to meet the December 31, 2025 deadline for the Government’s waiver of customs duty and General Consumption Tax (GCT) on most Hurricane Melissa relief items.

The waiver, which was originally set to expire on November 28, 2025, was extended as a result of ongoing recovery efforts after the powerful Category 5 storm devastated much of Jamaica’s south-west, leaving an estimated 45 people dead and extensive damage to infrastructure, buildings and agriculture.

Among the items which attract waivers are food, water, medical supplies, construction materials, and equipment such as generators and solar units.

The Jamaica Observer reported last week that the massive response from Jamaican and supportive organisations had overwhelmed the ports in Kingston and Montego Bay, St James, causing concern among Diaspora entities mindful of the looming December 31 deadline for clearance of goods.

The New York-based North Bronx Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church is among the latest entities moving to take advantage of the waiver, pulling out all the stops to ship a 40-foot container of supplies to the island.

“A team from the church is collaborating with the Greater New York SDA Conference of Churches, the Bronx Lebanon Hospital, and several individuals who will be travelling to the island in the coming days to physically engage in the restoration and relief effort,” said Elder Keith Williams.

The shipment consists of building and construction materials, power tools, lumber, clothes, pallets of medical supplies, tarpaulins, generators, non-perishable food items and mattresses, valued at approximately US$40,000 ($7.6 million).

Williams said the institutions which will benefit from the relief supplies include the Savanna-la-Mar High School and hospital in Westmoreland; Ginger Hill School in St Elizabeth; the Seventh-day Adventist-run Harrison Memorial High School in Montego Bay, St James; and the Askenish SDA church in Hanover.

Also hurrying to beat the deadline is the New Jerusalem Apostolic Church in Cambria Heights, Queens, New York, which has a predominantly Jamaican congregation. The church has already secured a container to pack clothes, food and other relief items, said Pastor Alton Blackwood.

In Florida, businessman David Bhoorasingh — who operates Diddy’s Caribbean Mart in Marion Oaks, Ocala — is working with World Outreach Evangelical Ministries, also based in Ocala, to raise relief supplies for shipment by month-end.

“We are concentrating primarily on securing clothes and non-perishable food items, and plan to reach out to Food For the Poor with the hope that they will assist in handling the supplies,” Bhoorasingh said.

A number of California-based organisations working closely with Dr Shauna Chin, Jamaica’s honorary consul in Los Angeles, have also joined the relief effort and contributed more than US$150,000 in construction materials, food, clothing and a solar energy unit.

The organisations include the Jamaica Awareness Association of California, Caribbean Cricket Club of California, Global Humanity Inc and Carib Press. A spokesman for the entities, Dr Roy Davidson who heads the Caribbean Cricket Club, told the Jamaica Observer that, “we have already provided help in refurbishing 20 homes and have secured some 500 food packages for distribution”.

Davidson, who said he was on his second visit to Jamaica since Hurricane Melissa struck, added that a number of computers and printers are to be made available for the Little London and Frome Technical high schools in Westmoreland, as the need to assist “is proving to be enormous”.

“We are pleased, however, to see signs that the recovery is taking shape as even the trees which were without leaves on my first visit right after the hurricane hit have began to grow leaves again,” said an upbeat Davidson.

A shipment of lumber being loaded into containers destined for Jamica from the North Bronx Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The Good News Church of God of Jamaica in Tangle River, St James lost its roof and is to receive assistance.