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No time to recover: Hurricane Melissa and the Caribbean’s compounding disaster trap

When a major hurricane hits an already weakened system, it causes simultaneous infrastructure collapses. By Farah Nibbs, The Conversation • just now

Hurricane Melissa tore off roofs and stripped trees of their leaves, including in many parts of Jamaica hit by Hurricane Beryl a year earlier.

( Ricardo Makyn/AFP via Getty Images )

Headlines have been filled with talk of the catastrophic power of Hurricane Melissa after the Category 5 storm devastated communities across Jamaica , Cuba and Haiti in October 2025. But to see this as a singular disaster misses the bigger picture: Melissa didn’t hit stable, resilient islands. It hit islands still rebuilding from the last hurricane.

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