Cedric Stephens | The uncountable mental toll of natural disasters

As was expected, the government’s provisional estimate of the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa has increased. In one instance, the numbers climbed from a base of US$6-7 billion to US$8.8 billion. In the other, a newspaper editorial reported an increase to US$10 billion.

The revised US$8.8 billion estimate related to physical damage, as opposed to economic losses. The latter includes loss of sales, tourism receipts, and the like, and are higher than the former. The former implies loss or damage to things like buildings, and infrastructure, such as roads.

World Bank Country Director Lilia Burunciuc said, according to this newspaper, that St Elizabeth, St James and Westmoreland experienced the worst damage, totalling US$5.5 billion, or two-thirds of the US$8.8-billion damage estimated for all of Jamaica.

Damage to residential buildings was estimated at US$3.7 billion, non-residential buildings at US$1.8 billion, infrastructure at US$2.9 billion, and agricultural damage at US$389 million. The agriculture estimate which amounts to $62.4 billion in Jamaican currency, suggested that the earlier estimate of losses of $30 billion in the agricultural sector had increased by over 100 per cent.

Comparatively, the losses attributed to Hurricane Beryl in 2024 amounted to US$20.1 million (J$32.2 billion).

The speed with which the authorities responded to the loss of landline and Wi-Fi services and its replacement with low-orbiting satellites was commendable. Their swift action raised questions about the management of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.

International institutions like the World Bank and insurance companies deploy private catastrophe disaster modelling companies using satellite technology and photos taken pre and post a catastrophe event to calculate damage estimates.

Sending people out in the field to assess damage is so 20th century. Were the actions to use the services of satellite company Starlink triggered by a contingency plan or the result of last-minute thinking?

The estimates of damage to date do not capture the full impact of Hurricane Melissa.

“COVID-19 caused serious psychological strain for Jamaicans, but the mental health challenges emerging after Hurricane Melissa are, in many cases, more severe, long-term, and layered onto existing stressors,” according to St James-based senior clinical psychologist Dr Georgia Rose.

Such stressors cannot be measured by number crunchers.

Dr Rose’s explanation of the human impact to a Gleaner reporter, was based on her experience in Coral Gardens, St James. The “scale of the storm’s mental health impact, especially in western Jamaica, is almost mind-boggling”, she noted. Other local medical professionals expressed similar opinions.

Dr Rose warned of increases in mood disorders, anxiety, and psychotic episodes, stressing the importance of strong government and family support. Beyond physical destruction, Dr Rose said, “many are grappling with the psychological blow of losing property that symbolised years of sacrifice”.

Residents of Parottee, St Elizabeth, agree. They have called for “urgent counselling, following reports of widespread mental health challenges as people try to cope with a “life of darkness” after Melissa”, according to a recent Gleaner report.

These comments reinforce one of the many lessons that were learned during COVID-19 – mental health must be treated as a core public health issue. The Planning Institute of Jamaica’s post-Hurricane Beryl assessment also highlighted psychosocial needs post-disaster.

Do Jamaica’s motor vehicle, life, health and property insurers, and the insurance industry regulator understand the total impact of catastrophes or is their understanding limited to numbers in the form of dollars? Do they recognise the potential business opportunities to extend their services beyond the selling and marketing of traditional insurance products? Has Melissa created the space for insurers to start to close the protection gap in meaningful ways and change the ways in which they are perceived?

Do insurance companies in middle-income developing countries, like Jamaica, that are acutely exposed to natural disasters have an extra duty beyond paying claims for physical injury and or death and loss or damage to property to include services, such as, psychological injuries of policyholders and their families and playing a loss prevention role? Or is the rebranding of the industry lobby with the new mission of ‘uniting Jamaica’s insurers to protect what matters most’, simply just nice-sounding words without any intent to change the companies’ existing business models?

Standard house owners and renters insurance policies do not pay for counselling services.

However, many insurers in the United States provide counselling referrals, crisis support lines or partner services to policyholders, often free of charge, immediately following a natural disaster. Allstate, State Farm, and Farmers are examples. USAA, which covers members of the military and veterans, integrate disaster recovery in their services.

On the other hand, insurers that design products especially for ‘high net worth individuals’ offer crisis assistance or crisis consultant services, which can include counselling services.

The increasing complexity and frequency of risks – for example, cyberattacks, natural disasters and other emerging threats – have exposed the limitations of traditional insurance based solely on risk transfer.

Climate change and technological disruption have made risk landscapes more volatile. Would the owners and employees of MegaMart Montego Bay have benefited from advice from their property insurers pre-Hurricane Melissa that had anticipated and mitigated the flood loss before it occurred?

Sophisticated insurance buyers abroad, according to researchers, are increasingly seeking more than just post-loss compensation from their insurers. They want advice on risk avoidance, resilience-building, and crisis management.

Back-to-back hurricanes like Beryl and Melissa in successive years, one of them the most powerful in recorded history, should accelerate changes and create new standards in how risks are managed in the society and should contribute to the building of a more resilient country.

Cedric E. Stephens provides independent information and advice about the management of risks and insurance. For free information or counsel, write to: aegis@flowja.com or business@gleanerjm.com