ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica — Tropical Storm Melissa is forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane by late this weekend, leaving Jamaica at risk of catastrophic impacts. While many locals are expressing trepidation at the potential damage, the resilience of the people in the face of disaster is unquestioned.

Indeed, it has been on full display following the devastation of Hurricane Beryl in July last year, which left over $56 billion in losses encompassing agriculture, housing and tourism among other sectors.

Hurricane Beryl tested the Jamaican spirit, but all along the south coast, residents are building back better in what they say is a testament to the tenacity of Jamaicans, who can weather any storm.

One example of that indomitable spirit came in the form of a video showing the Lee family of Beacon Pentecostal Church of God, in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth. The viral video showed the family singing “Goodness of God” by Cece Wynans while crouched under their bed as the ferocious Beryl tore their roof away on July 3, 2024.

Observer Online visited their home before the anniversary of the storm this year to see how the family was doing.

“For my children, it was really terrifying…” Pastor Tommy Lee said.  “I am here doing the interview, but I know my wife wouldn’t want to be a part of it, and my daughters wouldn’t want to be a part of it. It’s like they don’t want to relive, go back over the whole ordeal.”

Lee and his family stepped out after that experience to see what damage had been done to their home, which sits in the same yard as the church Lee pastors.

“Well, the day after Beryl— after the dust cleared… it was very devastating, you know, looking around to see the entire church roof gone, the house roof gone, and the trees all over the place. You could hardly move, back and forth, it was very discouraging,” Lee told Observer Online.

Almost a year later, both the church and the Lee’s home are still without a roof. However, progress has been made.

“We have done the slabbing of the roof, and we have to cut out the wall, put in columns and straighten it,” Lee disclosed.

“And the thing about the church now, we were to roof the church, but when we realised it was weak, because the structure was built over 30 years [ago], and then a lot of steel wasn’t used,” he continued. “It was cracked, and the four corners were burst. We had a plan before to do an expansion of the church, but then we made a decision to build a new structure.”

Citing a GoFundMe that had been set up to assist the church, a $100,000 voucher for building materials from Member of Parliament Floyd Green, as well as parishioner contributions, Lee says the building materials are secure, but manpower is an issue.

“What is really needed is the manpower, and if you don’t really have the money to pay men to do the work, then it is very hard,” he said.

For now, parishioners worship in the Lee family home in the room that is already roofed but without windows, and there are services every night.

“One of the things is that in our hearts, we wanted to be back here before the hurricane season started. My daughters keep asking when we are going to come back home,” Lee said, adding “So, if we get the church structure up and get it decked, then we can have a church over there [and] then we can continue renovating the house… Nevertheless, we are still grateful and thankful.”

As the Lee family home and church were facing Beryl’s wrath in 2024, several miles away, the Munro College Chapel was being rattled as well.

Built in 1912 and described as the “most beautiful building at Munro” by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, the building currently sports a bright yellow “this area is off limits to students” sign.

The damage is obvious both outside and in. Beryl tore a large hole in the roof while dozens of shingles are missing, windows were blasted in, and pews lay overturned.

Despite all of that, the stained glass windows, installed in 1918, remained pristine, without a single broken pane; the rest of the school was not so lucky.

When the Observer visited the school, it was easier for Vice Principal Bertram Bromfield to point out what hadn’t been damaged at the institution.

“I came here and I was shocked to see what had taken place to our beloved school… I could not even come up the driveway…all the trees were blown down. You had to use chainsaws to cut your way through…so it took some time, initially, just to start to assess the damage,” Bromfield said.

Beryl affected the third and fourth form blocks, computer labs, headmaster’s office, vice principal’s office, conference room, chapel, auditorium, teachers’ cottages, sporting grounds, the sixth form block, the cafeteria, kitchen and more. The damage weighed in at over $100 million.

Despite the massive bill and the extensive damage done in July 2024, by late June 2025, it was filled with students with what seemed barely a scratch on the buildings. Once again, it was the power of donations and community that saw to the transformation.

“The ministry itself, through the National Education Trust, would have given its contribution. The Munro Old Boys were tremendous, the Munro & Dickinson Trust, because this is a trust school as well, the board, then, of course, there would have been contributions from corporate Jamaica,” Bromfield said.

He added: Several companies, organisations would have come on board and helped us. So that is why we are here. We can see the difference, and we are grateful for the contribution that every single person made, so that we can be back up and running.”

Munro College is a source of pride for residents in the entire parish, but especially residents of the surrounding areas, including Jason Gordon, a fisherman at Treasure Beach.

“I have three sons, one fishes with me and mi feel proud too because I have a 13-year-old going to Munro, as a little fisherman, yeah man, mi feel nice,” he said with a laugh.

Located directly on the south coast, Gordon was not spared the effects of Beryl.

Early after the hurricane’s passage, before recovery efforts even began, a group of Treasure Beach fishermen set out to sea in a bid to assess what was left of the hundreds of lobster traps that made up their livelihoods. They found almost nothing. Forty-one-year-old Gordon and 62-year-old Donald Moxam were among that group.

“We went back to sea quickly because we wanted to see if anything was left out there…and that, too set us back. You had a little money, buy some gas and say you’re going to look for your traps, and when you look, nothing is there, so you still lose that money. [I lost] about eighty traps…roughly around $400,000,” Gordon detailed.

Unlike many along the south coast, they hadn’t lost their homes, but their means to provide for themselves and their families were crippled.

As Moxam explained, for a lobster fisherman, traps set at sea represent a significant investment as lobster season only lasts part of the year.

“It was a bad, bad financial hit because the lobster season starts on July 1, and we got hit on July 3. There was nothing to see…all the traps disappeared, I had over 40 traps and I was left with about six, and the six that I had couldn’t work for maybe more than a month, they were totally destroyed,” Moxam said.

It meant that for months, the lobster season passed by without the men being able to fish.

It took help from several sponsors, including The Breds Foundation, National Commercial Bank, TankWell, Global Empowerment Fund (GEM) and others to get the local fishermen back on their feet.

With money donated, they bought the necessary raw materials and began the process of stringing dozens of nets back together. Now in lobster season 2025, they have something to show for it.

“I have like 40 traps out there now, but we are making new ones because the [season was closed] so we are putting things together now,” Gordon said

Aside from fishing, Gordon has also been diversifying his income with a herd of goats and through farming. He indicated proudly to the Observer that the business has been growing.

Similarly, Pastor Lee also practices farming outside of his pastoral duties.

“This congregation is mainly farmers, even myself, I’m a farmer, so in that area, we were hit tremendously,” Lee said. “We are still in that struggle because the weather wasn’t so good… so we keep losing, losing, losing, but with faith in God we are pushing forward.”

Similar sentiments were shared by Linetth Whitely who is also a farmer, several miles away in Corby, St Elizabeth. When she saw her fields after the hurricane, it was like a rot had overtaken everything.

“Everything black. Everything was black the next day, just look dead,” she said.

She lost tomatoes, sweet peppers, corn and peas.

“[I had] just fertilised like two weeks ago when it came,[so] you spend money and you lose. You have to re-fertilise. I lose a lot of money because I spend, I would say, probably around $40,000 on pepper seeds. And you spend $20,000 on tomato seeds. The seeds are very expensive; probably I was looking to make $500,000,” she explained.

Her assistance came from the Rural Agricultural Development Agency (RADA), which Whitely hails as very helpful.

Despite this, the road to recovery was hard fought with Whitely highlighting how Beryl forced her to refertilise a crop, but that it still gave out a poor yield. And then after replanting it, she said the new plants struggled with drought conditions.

“When I tell you it’s rough, it’s rough. It doesn’t matter if it’s just me and three of us, me, my son, and my eight-year-old daughter. My son is 18, and he’s going to high school. It’s rough. It’s rough, any help, any help right now would be welcome,” she said.

Despite this, when she brought the Observer to her fields, small sweet peppers were budding, a result of her hard work, as she prepared for the 2025 hurricane season.

“But right now, for this hurricane season, I’m actually in the same process again [fertilising]. I hope it’s not like last year, where as they fertilise, the hurricanes come. I hope it’s not that thing this year,” she said.

Over a year after Hurricane Beryl, as Melissa approaches, pockets of destruction along Jamaica’s coast remain, a demonstration of the sheer destructive power of hurricanes, but dozens of other areas continue to rebuild, a reminder that Jamaica can build back stronger.