Hurricane Melissa

Responding to Immediate Medical Needs

In response to the storm’s impact across Jamaica and the Caribbean, Direct Relief is committing an initial $250,000 in emergency funding and has made available its entire inventory of medicines and medical supplies, including antibiotics, gastrointestinal medications, insulin, personal protective equipment, and vaccines to support hurricane-impacted communities in Jamaica and other affected countries.

The organization has dispatched a 757 charter plane with medical support to backstop the country’s Ministry of Health and Wellness, which operates all public hospitals and health clinics serving Jamaicans.

Direct Relief has also continuously shipped numerous tranches of medical aid, including field medic packs to equip first responders and personal care products for people who have been displaced from their homes.

Direct Relief has staff in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean working on this ongoing medical response.

Medical Supplies Already in the Region to Backstop Health Needs

Even before hurricane season began this year, Direct Relief prepositioned 13 hurricane preparedness packs throughout the Caribbean, including four with healthcare providers in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and two available at the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Panama for regional deployment.

Each pack contains more than 200 essential items to sustain care for as many as 3,000 patients for 30 days, including medicine for chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, inhalers, antibiotics, antifungal treatments, wound care supplies, and other supplies.

The organization also prepositioned field medic packs and hygiene kits with partners in hurricane-prone countries throughout the region, including more than 100 packs and 300 hygiene kits delivered earlier this month to the Dominican Republic’s civil defense agency. Additional emergency response resources are ready for deployment from Direct Relief’s headquarters in Santa Barbara, California.

Building on a Long History of Support

As part of its broader preparedness strategy across the Caribbean, Direct Relief has provided $12.6 million to regional projects through its Caribbean Resiliency Fund. This fund aims to strengthen health systems across the region to withstand and quickly recover from the growing impacts of climate-driven disasters. Support has included:

• $3 million to build a large solar and battery backup system for a central pharmaceutical warehouse in Jamaica; ensure power resilience at several health clinics and community centers across eastern and rural parts of Jamaica’s Saint Andrew’s Parish and across the southern coast and greater Kingston area; and procure two mobile health clinics for Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness., among other activities.
• $3 million for health infrastructure projects, including resilient power, cold-chain, medical oxygen, and mobile healthcare services, in Eastern Caribbean nations.
• $1 million to bolster disaster preparedness and response capacities in the Dominican Republic, including via enhanced cold chain and medical warehousing infrastructure.
• $1 million to support emergency operating costs for nine health facilities affected by the ongoing civil unrest in Haiti.

Additionally, Direct Relief provided more than $75 million in financial support and medical aid to strengthen Puerto Rico’s health system in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which caused catastrophic damage, a prolonged power blackout, and widespread health and humanitarian needs in September 2017. Among other activities, Direct Relief funding enabled the provision of resilient energy for much of the island’s critical healthcare infrastructure.

These long-term investments and strategic positioning programs are part of Direct Relief’s broader commitment to supporting communities before, during, and after disasters strike.