Bishop Henry B. Fernandez of The Faith Center Ministries in Sunrise, Florida, staged a One Love Jamaica Rebuild concert to buy zinc, plywood and supplies for Melissa-hit homes in St Elizabeth, Trelawny and Westmoreland.

Hurricane Melissa damaged or destroyed about 40 heritage structures, the Gleaner reported, including Beeston Spring Moravian Church in Westmoreland, reduced to rubble, and St Michael’s Anglican in Clark’s Town, Trelawny.

Baulk Wesleyan Holiness Church in Westmoreland lost its rear section and a house on its property to Hurricane Melissa, yet sheltered up to 20 roofless residents and served about 700 people with relief.

Early reports after Hurricane Melissa showed severe damage to at least 30 United Church congregations and about 10 per cent of Baptist roofs, with churches across Westmoreland, Trelawny, St Elizabeth and Hanover hit.

Negril has operated as one of Jamaica’s most recognised resort destinations while being governed by no one clearly in charge. A 2024 proposal for municipal status could change that, with significant implications for land, planning, and property.

Holy Trinity Anglican Church took its award-winning anti-gang play out of Grange Hill to Savanna-la-Mar because residents are afraid to go out after dark, as Westmoreland’s custos tied local gangs to lottery scamming money.

Negril’s persistent water shortage is rooted in infrastructure that has not kept pace with growth. With desalination and wastewater reuse now being seriously discussed, the question is whether the resort can resolve its most fundamental utility constraint before it becomes a ceiling on investment.

Beaufort Moravian Church in Westmoreland marked 190 years in 2024. Its foundation was moved stone by stone from Woodstock, the 1907 earthquake damaged it, and a 1923 thunderstorm demolished it before it was rebuilt.

A Westmoreland teacher says a church that moved on to land it bought across from her Savanna-la-Mar home has kept her family awake with services running to 2 a.m., and that repeated police reports brought only brief relief.

As a Westmoreland eviction deadline approached, squatters warned of civil war, even as the owner quietly spared a school and a church, and a 20-acre resettlement gift sat unanswered by government for years.