Hurricane Melissa’s devastation has laid bare the cracks in Jamaica’s public infrastructure and emergency response. The storm highlighted how weakened institutions, poor planning, and limited local capacity left communities exposed and slow to recover. It underscored the urgent need to rebuild not just homes and roads but the systems of governance, coordination, and preparedness that should protect citizens before the next disaster strikes.

Melissa exposes the Jamaican state

Jamaica Gleaner/9 Nov 2025

MELISSA, THE horrendously intense category 5 hurricane that smashed through western Jamaica nearly a fortnight ago, did not simply tear up infrastructure and take lives. Although plenty of that happened.

Indeed, so far, 32 people are known to have been killed by the storm, and the preliminary assessment of the physical damage is at least US$6 billion. The overall cost to the economy will be substantially higher.

But the hurricane did something else, too. It exposed the country’s soft underbelly: our deep incapacity to plan, to act, and to deliver at the scale that modern resilience demands.

Put another way, Hurricane Melissa shone a light on the diminution of the Jamaican state in critical areas, and therefore its capacity to respond with efficiency and urgency in times of crises. So, a natural event of epic proportions is being made an even greater disaster because of prior man-made failures.

Following the experiment with democratic socialism in the 1970s, the Jamaican state was heavily criticised – often rightly – for waste and bureaucracy. Demands for reforms were loud. They were heeded.

But in dismantling many of the institutions of the state during the era of structural adjustment, policymakers and their advisers might have gone too far. In many areas the market was asked to do what only the state can: provide public goods, protect the vulnerable, and plan and implement for the future.

SIDELINED

The planning bodies were sidelined. Ministries lost their engineers and planners. Local authorities became little more than administrative outposts.

Over the years, as a consequence of this hollowing out, Jamaica’s capacity to think, coordinate, and implement – the very machinery of nation-building – quietly eroded.

At the local level, the picture is stark. The municipal authorities, which, ideally, should have been the first responders in the current crisis, are skeletal. Many have no dedicated engineers; no emergency vehicles; and no budgetary flexibility.

Indeed, some parishes have a single building officer trying to regulate thousands of structures, which opens the door to shortcuts and behaviours that are at odds with good governance.

Drain cleaning, critical before any hurricane season, remains perennially underfunded. The clogged gullies of Montego Bay, Spanish Town, and Portmore, in a major storm, are potential death traps. In several parishes, disaster committees existed only on paper. Most, even without a disaster of the scale of Melissa, couldn’t even clear blocked roads without the input from the central government.

This is not the fault of local officials who, often underpaid and overworked, struggle with what little they have. It is the inevitable consequence of a system designed for central control rather than local empowerment: an inverted pyramid that is wide at the top and narrow and weak at the base.

To be clear, this newspaper does not advocate for a state that controls the commanding heights, or efforts to displace the market and, or private enterprise.

GUARANTOR OF COLLECTIVE GOOD

But hurricanes do not negotiate with markets. They have to be met by well-organised and capable governance infrastructure: a competent state is the guarantor of the collective good.

Investors, correctly, will only rebuild bridges connecting poor communities if it is profitable. If they spend their shareholders’ money on social causes they often expect tax write-offs. Indeed, no market will coordinate the return of displaced students to school. And no private contractor can substitute for a government that lacks systems of foresight, coordination, and accountability.

In that regard, Hurricane Melissa is a reminder that development is not a spectator sport. It demands a capable, mission-driven state – one that partners with markets and communities, but does not abdicate responsibility to them.

Faced with a situation that, even with the greatest capacity, would be difficult to traverse, Jamaica’s institutional weakness will make the recovery from Melissa slow and painful. Obviously, funding will be tight, but procurement bottlenecks will delay projects and coordination will falter.

But acknowledgement of this reality should not morph into despair. Rather, the challenges left by Melissa should be grasped as an opportunity: a launch pad for a new era of national capability – a resuscitation of systems institutions, and civic will.

NATIONAL PLANNING CULTURE

That means re-establishing a national planning culture, with a permanent scenario and systems analysis capabilities. It also suggests affording local authorities the room and confidence to exercise, to the fullest extent, the autonomy they are allowed in law.

But they need the tools: technical staff, drainage budgets, and emergency funds. Resilience begins in the communities where disaster strikes first.

Further, the country has to deepen the professionalisation of the public service. The new civil servant must be trained in project management, data analytics, and digital systems. There must be a focus on delivery as the metric of performance. These systemic and systematic approaches to the operation of the state must be buttressed by institutionalised transparency, which builds trust.

Every great turning point in Jamaican history has emerged from crisis. This one shouldn’t be wasted.

In that regard, the post-Hurricane Melissa recovery should be as much about building a state that plans for the long term, values competence, and invests in people, as it is rebuilding the country’s physical and social infrastructure.

If Jamaica accepts and meets this challenge, the next hurricane should not find the country disorganised or pleading for aid, but executing a plan already rehearsed – guided by foresight and planning. 

To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: (876) 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published