Christopher Burgess | Upgrading insurance and infrastructure

Hurricanes are becoming more destructive. What cost Jamaica under US$1 billion in the 1950s now costs nearly US$9 billion in 2025 — damaging roads, water systems, cutting power to most of the island, and overwhelming communities from Catherine Hall to Santa Cruz. Storms are hitting harder and costing the economy more.

These escalating impacts reinforce the need for stronger disaster-risk financing. For developing countries, risk-financing provides predictable, rapid funding after extreme events and protects the budget from shocks. Jamaica’s current tools — including the US$150 million catastrophe bond — cover only a fraction of multibillion-dollar disasters as Caribbean storms now routinely exceed US$5–10 billion. Without greater investment in risk-financing and infrastructure upgrades, each hurricane will stall economic progress.

Hurricane Melissa exposed decades of underinvestment in financial protection, flood control, and coastal defences — hitting working-class communities and low-lying coastal towns hardest. Jamaica must also ensure that in the rebuilding process, both homeowners and contractors do not reproduce past vulnerabilities. Otherwise neglect will shape future disaster outcomes.

DAMAGE THAT DWARFS INSURANCE

In 70 years, Jamaica has seen more than a tenfold increase in hurricane damage. Hurricane Charlie (1951) caused US$0.9 billion in today’s terms; Hurricane Gilbert (1988) cost over US$3 billion. Hurricane Melissa surpassed them all at an estimated US$8.75 billion in direct damage plus at least US$2 billion in losses to productive sectors that is not yet counted.

Regional climate-damage models in 2015 predicted this escalation in hurricane damage. Infrastructure alone sustained US$2.9 billion in damage — 763 water-supply systems disrupted, five major hospitals affected, over 600 schools impacted, and 151 roads blocked or washed out. Power failures affected 77 per cent of the island. With a hotter climate, damage from major hurricanes could exceed US$13 billion before 2050. We must be better prepared financially.

Jamaica’s disaster-risk financing framework — aligned with the UN Sendai Framework — mirrors regional systems in Dominica, Grenada, Barbados, and The Bahamas. It uses layered protection: contingency funds, CCRIF parametric insurance, catastrophe bonds, and credit lines. CCRIF, developed through CARICOM and the CDB in 2007, provides just over US$500 million when fully triggered. But the Atlantic Council notes that this is “dwarfed” by actual losses of US$8–12 billion. Jamaica needs comprehensive insurance to manage the economic shocks of today’s hurricanes.

We are critically underinsured. Jamaica now requires US$6.3 billion in new loans for rebuilding — forcing a one-year suspension of the fiscal rules and increasing debt-to-GDP. This outcome reflects a structural gap because we did not follow global recommendations from Munich Re and the Geneva Association, which advise middle-income countries to maintain a minimum disaster-risk financing of 10–15% of GDP. For Jamaica, this equals US$2–3 billion, not US$500 million.

Serious climate resilience demands matching policy commitments with financial protection. Jamaica already knows that its grid, flood controls, and coastal defences are vulnerable. A US$2 billion risk-financing buffer could have supported JPS system repairs, rebuilt roofs, and recovery in Black River and Catherine Hall — without borrowing.

SAVING BLACK RIVER

Black River was the poster child of Melissa’s destruction, facing Melissa’s worst winds and waves. The town was buried under sand after an unprecedented 11–13-ft storm surge. St John’s Anglican Church and the Black River Market were devastated because they were low-lying, exposed, and structurally weak. Yet the police and fire stations next door — though inundated — survived, demonstrating how better construction standards can determine resilience.

The town’s hospital and clinic must be rebuilt with engineered roofs and technical oversight. Damage to commerce, institutions, and housing may exceed US$120 million.

There were success stories. Buildings along High Street and School Street — including the bank, supermarket, and gas station — stood firm, but rattled, behind the 2014 coastal revetment, which absorbed Melissa’s wave energy. The lesson is clear: coastal resilience requires stronger revetment defences and raising critical infrastructure above the surge line.

The Silver Sands jetty in Trelawny — tested in a wave flume at the UWI Kingston — also held firm under Melissa’s extreme wave climate, reinforcing the importance of engineering modelling for future coastal projects. The coastal-protection works completed in Annotto Bay also illustrate how modern design reduces catastrophic losses.

Rebuilding and elevating Black River’s public buildings, market, and installing a mile of revetment with a boardwalk — like Palisadoes — would cost about US$30 million and safeguard the town for generations. But coastlines are not the only systems that failed. Our flood-control works are also choked.

FIXING FLOOD CONTROL

Catherine Hall and West Green — built in the 1970s and never flooded at this scale — became scenes of devastation. Over 1,500 households and the long-standing MegaMart in Montego Bay were inundated. Residential, infrastructure, and commercial losses will exceed US$200 million. Furniture, appliances, and vehicles were buried in six feet of mud after the Pye River overflowed and the Barnett River flowed through a breach. The NWA now faces repairing berms on the Barnett River and extensive dredging while NEPA must exert stricter controls to prevent contractors from depositing materials into river channels. A stronger berm system costing around US$20 million is urgently needed.

Santa Cruz suffered a similar fate. New River, a tributary of the Black River, overwhelmed undersized culverts, burying the town centre and flooding shops, farms, and vehicles. Losses likely exceed US$70 million. With more than 500mm of rainfall in two days, the outdated drainage system failed completely. A new bridge at Lacovia and widened drains — costing about US$15 million — could have prevented most of the damage.

But we know what to do already. The National Drainage Master Plan (2012) identified Santa Cruz, Lacovia, Montego Bay’s North Gully, and Falmouth as priority zones requiring major upgrades for one-in-50-year rainfall events. The problem was never engineering or planning — it was decades of non-implementation.

Hurricane Melissa showed that neither Jamaica’s infrastructure nor disaster-risk financing is adequate for a warming climate and multibillion-dollar storms. What is required is implementation of upgraded infrastructure at scale, and larger disaster-risk financial protection, to rebuild a more resilient economy.

Christopher Burgess, PhD, is a civil engineer, land developer, climate change scientist and the managing director of CEAC Solutions. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.