Damage associated with Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica is estimated at around $8 billion.
Melissa was at Category 5, with wind speed of 298 kilometres per hour.
Experts described Melissa as being “at the very edge of what is physically possible” in the Atlantic Ocean.
About 75 people died in the storm, with 43 in nearby Haiti, and 13 are still missing.
15,000 Jamaicans were evacuated and accommodated in temporary state shelters during the hurricane.
Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, said this week, its economic impact is severe “the storm struck the heart of Jamaica’s productive belt. It tore through our breadbasket parish of St. Elizabeth; it disrupted our tourism corridor stretching from Westmoreland through St. James and into Trelawny and St. Ann; and it inflicted heavy damage on housing, community infrastructure, commercial operations, and public utilities across multiple parishes. Thousands of households now face the loss of homes, crops, equipment, and small enterprises. This is not only a humanitarian crisis—it is a shock to livelihoods, incomes, and local economies.”
The storm ravaged houses, 428 000 commercial buildings, 151 roads, 446 schools, electricity, water, and telecommunications infrastructure, estimated at between US $6 to 7 billion.
This amounts to 30% of that country’s GDP.
Picture: Supplied