About 40 Heritage Structures Damaged or Destroyed: A Westmoreland Moravian Church Among Melissa’s Losses

• Roughly 40 heritage structures were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Melissa
• Beeston Spring Moravian Church in Westmoreland was reduced to rubble
• St Michael’s Anglican in Clark’s Town, Trelawny, suffered severe roof damage
• The JNHT had not yet released a full list or repair estimates

Hurricane Melissa did not just take roofs off homes. According to the Gleaner, about 40 heritage structures were damaged or destroyed, and the figure was expected to rise once privately owned heritage properties had been assessed.

Churches were among the worst hit. Beeston Spring Moravian Church in Westmoreland was reduced to rubble. St Michael’s Anglican Church in Clark’s Town, Trelawny, suffered severe roof damage. Public buildings were also affected, including the St Elizabeth Parish Court on High Street in Black River and the Falmouth Courthouse, a Georgian-style building first erected in 1815 and rebuilt in 1926.

The Jamaica National Heritage Trust, the state agency responsible for protecting national monuments, was overseeing the damage assessments. At the time of the report, it had not released the full list of affected buildings or any estimate of repair costs.

Senior staff reporter Jovan Johnson wrote that Melissa’s winds “did not just strip roofs and flatten homes” but struck at structures that anchor Jamaica’s cultural identity.

Heritage churches present a special problem after a disaster. Unlike an ordinary building, a listed or historically significant church cannot simply be bulldozed and replaced with the cheapest option. Restoring it properly often costs more and takes longer, and congregations in storm-hit rural parishes are often the least able to pay.

For the diaspora and heritage-minded returnees, the gap between a damage list and a repair budget is where help is most needed. Churches like Beeston Spring were built and rebuilt by earlier generations; whether they are restored this time will depend on money, skilled builders and clear decisions from the heritage authorities.

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