Melissa’s hidden toll

A significant portion of Jamaica’s heritage assets was lost when Hurricane Melissa battered the island last October, with the possibility that valuable archaeological treasures buried underground were also washed away.

According to Debra Kay Palmer, director of world heritage and cultural conventions at the Ministry of Culture, the damage unleashed by Category 5 Melissa extended beyond the parishes of St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Trelawny, and St James which bore the brunt of the storm’s rage.

“It extended to the east where our world heritage properties would also have been impacted, which is the context you may not know. The Blue and John Crow Mountains would have been impacted and to a smaller extent Port Royal,” Palmer divulged during a Hurricane Melissa Data Symposium hosted by The University of the West Indies, Mona in St Andrew on Wednesday, October 28, exactly one year since Melissa’s onslaught.