Just over half of Jamaicans have rated the government’s management of the Hurricane Melissa recovery effort as poor.
That’s according to the latest Nationwide/Bluedot poll, conducted islandwide between September 6 and 28, 2026.
George Davis reports.
Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica almost a year ago, on October 28, 2025, devastating the western end of the island.
The Category 5 storm killed 45 people, displaced thousands and caused widespread infrastructure damage to homes, hospitals, over 600 schools, and utilities.
The Planning Institute of Jamaica says total loss and damage associated with the passage of the hurricane is estimated at JM$1.9 trillion or US$12 billion.
The figure is equivalent to 56.7 per cent of Jamaica’s 2024 gross domestic product.
The government responded with a US$150 million loan to JPS for electricity restoration, a $10 billion house re-roofing grant programme, $25 billion for school repairs and a $3 billion agriculture recovery project.
It has also undertaken the roll-out of modular housing solutions across sections of Westmoreland and St Elizabeth for citizens who were left homeless.
But, as the country draws closer to the Melissa anniversary, Jamaicans have registered dissatisfaction with the pace of recovery.
Fifty-one per cent of respondents told the Bluedot pollsters that the government’s management of the hurricane recovery effort has been poor. Twenty-four per cent said ‘fair’. Another 13 per cent graded the government’s response as ‘good’.
Five per cent said it was excellent. And, six per cent said they were not familiar with the government’s recovery response.
The pollsters found that the views on the recovery effort are closely tied to wider political judgements.
Among those who rated the effort as poor, 73 per cent distrust the prime minister, and 67 per cent of that group said the country was heading in the wrong direction.
Only 11 per cent of that group intends to vote for the governing Jamaica Labour Party.
Bluedot found that the link holds among neutrals, with 74 per cent of those rating the Melissa response as poor distrusting the prime minister.
In September, Prime Minister Holness used the signing ceremony for the National Reconstruction Implementation Support Grant at the AC Hotel in St. Andrew to address the pace of the recovery.
