One year after Hurricane Melissa came ashore near Black River, many of the town’s business owners and market vendors still do not know whether they will be allowed to rebuild where they stood, or what they will be offered if they cannot.
BLACK RIVER, Jamaica, 28 October 2026. A year ago today, Hurricane Melissa made landfall just outside Black River as a Category 5 storm. The town’s hospital, courthouse, market and civic buildings were destroyed or badly damaged, and the commercial heart of the St Elizabeth capital along High Street was left in ruins.
Twelve months on, for many property owners and traders in the town, the central question has not been answered. Will the land they built on be part of the new Black River, and on what terms?
The plan for a new town centre
The Government’s direction was set out in March. In his Budget Debate presentation, the Prime Minister said Black River would not be rebuilt as it was. He said the Urban Development Corporation, working with development partners, was preparing a plan to separate what belongs inland from what belongs on the coast.
Under that plan, the town’s essential public functions, including the hospital, courthouses, municipal offices, police station, tax office, schools, market and transport hub, would move to a new urban centre built inland, above storm surge levels and projected sea level rise. The waterfront would be protected by submerged offshore breakwaters, a concrete seawall with a public boardwalk and engineered revetments, and would be developed as an entertainment and tourism corridor with space for boutique hotels and restaurants.
Owners on High Street
For the owners of buildings on High Street, that vision raises direct questions about their land. Business owners walked representatives of several United Nations agencies through the district on 1 October to show them the condition of their properties. According to an account of that walk published this week by a former Jamaican ambassador to the United Nations who took part, about 15 business owners on the seaward side of the street have recently been told by the Urban Development Corporation that the Government needs their properties and is willing to enter into individual arrangements with them. Owners on the other side of the same street, he wrote, have been told to wait for the master plan.
The same account describes most High Street businesses as still shuttered, with many owners saying they had no resources to clean up or restock, had slow responses from insurers, and had not been consulted on the plan. We could not find a published statement from the Urban Development Corporation setting out which properties it wants, how they will be valued or what timeline applies.
The market that is no longer there
The Black River Market, one of the public functions the plan would move inland, has already gone. Its damaged structure was dismantled after the storm. Vendors say they now sell on the market grounds without overhead cover, that the entrance floods in heavy rain, and that they have received little or no help to replace stock lost in the hurricane. Some vendors say they paid monthly market fees of $4,000 to $5,000 before the storm.
The Minister of Local Government and Community Development and the Mayor of Black River have both visited the site, but no date has been published for a new or rebuilt market. Vendors who were moved off the roadside say their sales have fallen because customers now buy from traders who stayed on the street.
Help for small businesses
The main programme aimed at people in this position is the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce’s MSME Restoration Grant Programme, which has $500 million to give out as grants rather than loans. The Ministry held an application drive in Black River on 14 October. According to the Jamaica Information Service, online registration opened on 6 October and closes on 16 November. Applicants must be vouched for by a Member of Parliament, a Justice of the Peace or a minister of religion, and registered businesses need a Taxpayer Registration Number.
The grant is meant to help restart trading. It does not settle what happens to a building or a piece of land that the State may want for the new town.
What owners may want to ask
Owners approached about their property may want to get the request in writing, ask whether it is an offer to buy by agreement or the start of a compulsory acquisition, which follows its own legal process, and get an independent valuation before agreeing to any figure. Owners told to wait for the master plan may want to ask when it will be published, whether there will be public consultation, and whether their land falls inside any area set aside for coastal defences or public space.
Tenants of commercial premises face a different problem. If a building is acquired or not rebuilt, their lease may end with it, and they may want advice on what notice or compensation, if any, applies to them.
Building back, and building elsewhere
Moving a town’s centre away from the sea may well save lives and property in the next storm, and the plan offers Black River something it has never had, a planned civic core. But it also asks families who built businesses on High Street over generations to wait, and in some cases to leave. How quickly the Government publishes the plan, consults on it and settles fair terms with owners is likely to decide whether Black River’s recovery is shared by the people who were there before the storm.
Disclaimer: This article is for information only and is not legal or financial advice. Property rights and compensation depend on the facts of each case. Seek independent professional advice before agreeing to sell or give up property.
A year on, Black River knows what it wants to become. Its owners are still waiting to learn where they fit.
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