Hurricane Melissa

Crawford is responding to claims and supporting affected people and communities in repair and recovery from this latest devastating storm. We also have experts assisting with business interruption claims.

Updates

Oct 27, 2025

The beginnings of this weather event, now named Hurricane Melissa, were originally detected in the southern Caribbean sea, south of both Cuba and Jamaica.

In an update from the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC), we now know that Hurricane Melissa has strengthened to category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale and is currently tracking towards Jamaica at around 3mph (6 kph) with landfall likely to occur early on Tuesday October 28.

With sustained winds already recorded at 160mph (260kph) and the likelihood that they will intensify in the next 24 hours, life-threatening and destructive hurricane conditions are expected to impact Jamaica, accompanied by rainfall of 15 to 30 inches (38 to 76cm), which may even peak to 40 inches (101cm) in some localised areas. Storm surges of up to 13 feet (4m) above ground level are also predicted along the south coast while inland there is likely to be catastrophic flash flooding and landslides in the higher ground. 

The Jamaican authorities are already warning that these will lead to road blockages and infrastructure breakdowns which will cause severe delays to damage assessment and clean-up operations.

The Jamaica Disaster Risk Management Council has emphasised the seriousness of the situation by warning residents not to underestimate the dangers posed by Hurricane Melissa. Authorities are strongly encouraging the population to seek refuge in one of the 900 designated shelters across the island. In response to the escalating threat with mandated evacuations for Port Royal in Kingston, as well as six additional areas.

Crawford and its regional partners are combining to engage the highest level of surge plans to deliver a breadth of resources across the island as soon as it is safe to gain access. 

With these plans engaged to meet increased demand for assistance across Jamaica, you can be sure that Crawford will be there with the right team, the right technology, and the right processes to help restore lives, businesses and communities with empathy and efficiency.

We will provide more updates as they become available.