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In late 2025, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica’s western parishes as a Category 5 hurricane. At its peak, winds reached 298 kph (185 mph) ranking Melissa as the most powerful hurricane in the world in 2025 and the strongest ever registered in Jamaica.
To inform both immediate and long-term recovery, Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) conducted a rapid livelihood assessment in St. Elizabeth parish. Key informant interviews (KIIs) findings with fisherfolk, farmers, and community representatives and government officials demonstrated the following three results:
1. Disruption to livelihoods were extensive for Jamaicans earning a living through farming, fishing, animal husbandry, and running small businesses. For communities that were already struck in 2024 by the landfall of Hurricane Beryl, the destruction of crops during harvest season, the damage to infrastructure, fishing boats and gears, and the loss of tourism-linked markets have been disastrous to already precarious livelihood activities.
2. Most respondents reported restricted capacity to restart livelihoods in the short-term without external support due to high asset replacement costs and inflation. At the same time, new livelihood opportunities were perceived to be limited to short-term recovery employment.
3. Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) was the preferred response modality by which to receive support, and priority support includes asset replacement, strengthened market linkages and targeted support to address transportation, information, and safety barriers that disproportionately affect women, older adults, and persons living with disabilities are all key to sustainable livelihood recovery.
Recommendations are included which address: future opportunities for joint, extended livelihoods assessments; coordination imperatives; and program quality requirements.