As hurricane Melissa grew in strength and tracked towards Jamaica, it was clear there would be considerable devastation and humanitarian need. Category 5 hurricanes have catastrophic impacts on communities, leaving them without protection from the elements. Hurricane Melissa tracked west, sparing the east of the island (including the capital Kingston) from the most destructive winds. The west of the island faced significant destruction, and loss of life.

The UK aid-funded Humanitarian and Stabilisation Operations Team (HSOT) provides the UK government with capacity and specialist expertise to support effective responses to sudden-onset disasters and complex emergencies around the world.

Immediate Response

In the days prior to landfall, HSOT mobilised a five-person strong humanitarian team with skills including humanitarian advisory, supply chain, information management and security, to deploy alongside staff from the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to bolster the UK’s regional office in Barbados and the British High Commission in Kingston, Jamaica. We landed on 31 October and were one of the first humanitarian teams to arrive in Jamaica less than 36 hours after landfall.

With significant destruction to infrastructure and damaged markets, immediate in-kind provision of shelter supplies was a priority. Our team quickly identified ways to transport shelter supplies on board Tui and Virgin repatriation flights which were scheduled to bring home UK nationals.

Transporting supplies on flights already heading to the island came at no cost, generating significant savings, and the first aid flight arrived within 72 hours of the hurricane passing.

One of the team’s logistic experts deployed to Antigua and arrived in Jamaica on a chartered cargo flight bringing emergency shelter kits and solar lanterns from emergency relief stocks prepositioned in Antigua. Since the storm, HSOT has delivered 6,560 shelter kits, 1,100 hygiene kits and more than 6,700 solar lanterns on behalf of the UK government, reaching more than 33,000 people affected by the hurricane.

In Kingston, we immediately set about meeting with humanitarian partners. A daily coordination meeting run by UNOCHA in a local hotel grew from around 15 participants on the first day, to over 100 people two weeks later. As the response evolved, we gathered information that fed into advice for the British High Commission setting out priority humanitarian activities and which organisations to fund.

We visited areas devastated by the hurricane, like Black River and Montego Bay, and saw the extent of damage and humanitarian need. When the Royal Navy’s HMS Trent arrived on shore, we liaised with the crew and Jamaican authorities to identify how best to support the humanitarian effort. The British service personnel helped restore vital infrastructure including emergency repairs at Falmouth hospital.

Setting the Rebuild up for Success

Working alongside colleagues at the British High Commission in Kingston, all of whom had also been affected by the hurricane, the resilience of Jamaicans impressed and inspired us. Out of the headlines, the humanitarian response will continue for many months, and rebuilding will take years. As a team of first responders, we handed over to humanitarian experts brought in from HSOT’s roster, while the UK’s Emergency Medical Team first mobile clinics opened providing direct healthcare in communities where facilities had been damaged and destroyed.

Back in the UK, we were pleased to welcome the Minister for Development to FCDO’s Disaster Response Centre in Kemble, Gloucestershire where the UK keeps stocks of humanitarian relief items. Together with FCDO colleagues, we talked the Minister through the UK’s humanitarian preparedness, alerting system and humanitarian response cycle which swung into action in the lead up to and the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.

The visit was a great opportunity to showcase how we work closely with FCDO to prepare and deliver life-saving assistance during humanitarian emergencies and highlight the effectiveness of the UK’s humanitarian operations and the importance of deploying UK expertise.

The UK aid-funded Humanitarian and Stabilisation Operations Team (HSOT) is managed by Palladium on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.