Melissa’s wrath: The loudest warning yet

On the afternoon the winds came, I remember the sky darkening as though the earth itself were drawing a breath before the blow. When the storm, named Hurricane Melissa, struck Jamaica as a Category 5 monster, even our island’s long experience of hurricanes seemed to pale beside the scale of destruction. From Hurricane Charlie in 1951 to Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, our nation has known the fury of nature’s raw strength. Yet, what confronted us this time felt like more than memory repeating. It felt like a message.

In the wake of Melissa’s passing, we survey the physical wreckage, roofless houses, uprooted trees, and flooded valleys. Still, we also must consider the moral and spiritual wreckage: humanity’s dismissal of the warning. The climate is changing, the ocean is warmer, the storms are stronger, and the call to responsibility is louder. The same greed that keeps burning fossil fuels, polluting rivers, and recklessly building on disaster-prone slopes is the same hand that now shakes the foundations of our homes. For Jamaica, it is no longer sufficient to rebuild as we were; we must rebuild better.

We remember that our island’s vulnerability is not just in geography but in habit. When Beryl hit last year, we thought recovery would be the hardest part; when Sandy made land, we thought the worst was behind us. Now we know the worst may yet come, and, through our actions or inactions, we hasten it. This was the sign. Then we were warned. We did little. Now we are forced to re-look at our selfish ways.

No matter our ingenuity or our might, the wind can still topple our structures and the sea can still reclaim our shores. We must embrace our role not just as survivors but as guardians of forests and wetlands, of mangroves and coral reefs, of our children’s future. Climate change is not abstract; it’s local; it’s personal. When the walls fall, race and class blur in the inundation; only shared commitment matters. Our neighbour’s safety is our safety; our reuse of plastic, our fuel choice, our tree planting, our conscientious living, it all counts.

Let us take a day for reflection, look around and within, ask what we have done and what we can do. Then, affirm: to protect our Earth, to honour creation, choose resilience, respect, and renewal. Let this affirmation be our anchor as we rebuild not just houses and roads, but our working relationship with the earth and with each other.

The destruction of Melissa is fierce, but from it can grow our fiercest resolve. Jamaica will rise again, but let it rise wiser, gentler, and more in harmony with the earth that bears us.

Contributed by Dr Lorenzo Gordon, a diabetologist, internal medicine consultant, biochemist, and a history and heritage enthusiast. Send feedback to inspiring876@gmail.com.