Tag Archives: environment

Guest Post on Effects of H. Melissa in Jamaica

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Observations/Comments on Hurricane Melissa (October 28, 2025) by Judy Kruger

Numerous storms have directly impacted Jamaica over the past 20 years, but none as strong as Hurricane Melissa. On the ground, operations are being managed by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management in Kingston, Jamaica (https://kingstonma.gov/189/Kingston-Emergency-Management-Agency-KEM), which instituted mandatory evacuation orders for several communities along the southern coast on October 27, 2025, before the storm made landfall. Hurricane Melissa, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, is one of the most powerful storms to hit Jamaica in the island’s recorded history.

Anticipating Hurricane Melissa becoming a large-scale hurricane, many agencies have pre-staged relief supplies in Jamaica. The Red Cross societies in Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic deployed volunteers, opened shelters, and carried out rescues and evacuations across the Caribbean Islands ahead of the storm’s arrival. According to the Jamaica Observer, 972 people were registered in shelters across the island (https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/10/27/eyeonmelissa-972-people-registered-shelters-across-jamaica-mckenzie/).

As the Category 5 storm makes landfall, regional efforts are gearing up from the U.N. International Organization for Migration (Barbados-based) to dispatch solar lamps, blankets, tents, and generators. Non-profits such as Operation Airdrop are coordinating private aircraft to deliver supplies as soon as conditions permit. The Red Cross has pre-positioned relief supplies to support directly impacted communities and families, and Operation Blessing (a Virginia Beach-based global response team) is staging nearby to distribute aid (water purifiers, hygiene kits, and other essentials) in Jamaica. Other nonprofits will follow to provide emergency food, water, medical supplies, and emotional support to those in crisis.

In July 2024, Hurricane Berly made landfall in the southern part of Jamaica as a Category 5 storm with winds of 140-160 mph. Reported damage occurred to telecommunications, infrastructure (roads), housing, and buildings, causing losses of about $200M (https://reliefweb.int/report/jamaica/hurricane-beryl-jamaica-situation-report-no1-9-july-2024). Access to clean water, sanitation, and electricity was a concern for many weeks following the storm, given long-standing flood waters that could lead to waterborne and vector-borne diseases. The other worry is for the coastal parts of the island, which experienced significant damage from Berly, and have not fully recovered. Storm surge over 13 feet high causes catastrophic destruction in low-lying coastal areas and widespread erosion. The powerful waves along the coastline have swept away many homes, businesses, agricultural land, and wildlife.

Shelter-in-place advisories are extended overnight, given that the US National Hurricane Center predicts an additional 6-12 inches of rain throughout the night, making it unsafe to travel through flood waters. It is a dangerous environment, given that many residents are without power due to downed trees and power lines. Even a fast-moving storm like Hurricane Melissa can take days, or even over a week, for 13 feet of storm surge to recede, making it difficult for the country to recover quickly in the coming weeks. Food aid, farming equipment parts, and other resources will be needed to support lost crops.

Although hurricane season in the Caribbean officially ends on November 30, storms are less frequent in late October. This late-season hurricane is highly unusual given its size; however, let’s not forget the impact Beryl made. As the eye of the storm path moves towards Cuba and the Bahamas, it could remain a major hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale (https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/wmo-says-hurricane-melissa-will-be-jamaicas-worst-storm-this-century-2025-10-28/), making recovery a challenge for several island nations. The magnitude of this wind and rain event across several mountainous island nations could lead to life-threatening flash flooding, landslides, and damage to roads and bridges along the Southwestern coast.

Over time, as the magnitude of hurricane-strength storms reaching Category 4 or 5 strength is growing in the Caribbean (https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/chapter/chapter-11/), community efforts are needed to connect residents and visitors with emergency services. As more agencies mobilize on the ground to support locally executed and managed recovery, the struggle is just beginning for the people of Jamaica and the wider Caribbean area. It will take time for regional disaster risk management organizations to help communities rebuild and fully recover in the wake of Hurricane Melissa.

Author: Judy Kruger, Ph.D.[jkruger@emory.edu; 404-386-3029]
Adjunct Associate Professor|Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. 1518 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA, 30322 | CNR 7040Z

Review of Book on Resilience

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Invited book review from Island Press of Ten Years of Transformative Thinking.. Review by John Plodinec, independent scholar.

Once again, Claire has asked me to review the latest in the Resilience Matters series – this one subtitled Ten Years of Transformative Thinking. The ebook, again edited by Laurie Mazur, consists of 61 short essays (plus Mazur’s Introduction, A Decade of Progress Toward a Fairer, Greener, and More Resilient Future), all of which have appeared as opinion pieces in various periodicals and in previous versions of the Resilience matters series (I was moved to wonder why there was no new material in this compilation). The ebook is free, and can be downloaded here.

The Introductory essay by Laurie Mazur sets the tone for much of the rest of the book:

“…resilience is not about “bouncing back” to the disastrous status quo. Today, the destabilized climate poses unparalleled risks to human health, safety, and economic well-being. And in a world of rising inequality, those risks are not equally shared: low-income communities and people of color are hit first and worst by climate change impacts. So, “bouncing back” to a status quo that increases greenhouse gases and widens inequality will only magnify human suffering found its combination of polemic and practicality particularly indicative of the schizophrenic nature of the book. Many of the included essays are unabashedly “progressive” – with all of the breathless “sky is falling” fear-mongering that that entails. However, there are some worthwhile nuggets, just as there have been in previous compilations. In fact, many of the essays are mixtures of both the practical and polemic.

The first paper in the first Section (Climate Adaptation and Resilience) – We Can’t Have Resilience Without Justice is typical. The author rightfully points out the loss of trust inflicting our communities and the importance of rebuilding trust if we are to reinvigorate our cities. I violently agree that rebuilding trust in both our institutions and ourselves is absolutely essential if we are to become more resilient. But then the author blames the loss of trust on slavery and structural racism, as if only people of color have lost trust in our institutions. The author offers some bland bromides (investing in education, urban infrastructure and affordable housing) that have absolutely nothing to do with overcoming our lack of trust. He goes on “in a resilient society, both opportunity and risk are shared by all.” This is preciously Polly Anna-ish. We spend more of our educational dollars on kids in our inner cities – and achieve … almost nothing. The sorry statistics on the lack of basic math and reading proficiency are almost terrifying. While the second paper also is highly polemic, it has a useful middle that lays out the characteristics of resilient systems and communities rather well:

  • · Diverse components unlikely to be subject to a single point failure.
  • · Redundant means of carrying out basic functions.
  • · Modular systems that can function even if disconnected from the rest of the community.
  • · Tight communication connections, that provide ample warning of adverse change.
  • · Social and cultural capital that encourages and facilitates formation of tight connections across the community.
  • · Cultural capital that gives people the confidence to take action even in the face of disaster.
  • · The ability to innovate – recognizing when the usual response is not sufficient to deal with the unusual, and then formulating a novel course of action.
  • I must also point out that I found some genuine nuggets amidst the activism. There’s a nice little piece by Shade Shutters and Mazur (Interdependence and its Discontents) that highlights the vulnerabilities associated with interdependencies (As an aside, Shutters has done important work on recovery from economic disasters that deserves wider attention.). Danielle Arigoni points out a growing problem for emergency planners – Older People Suffer the Most in Climate Disasters. We Need to Plan and Prepare for That. Laurie Mazur has a useful piece on how fortifying our homes can ease the homeowners’ insurance crisis. How Farmers Can Survive Tariffs – though written in 2018 – is a timely reminder of the value of diversification even in farming.
  • I found many of the essays in the last section – Transportation, Infrastructure,& Built Environment – the most useful. Among the best were:
  • If Roads Are Gridlocked in Rush Hour, What Happens When Disaster Strikes?
  • Parks: Not Just for Picnics
  • Fix It and They Will Come, a neat little piece about a UU church in NJ reinventing itself.
  • Why “Middle Neighborhoods” Are the Sweet Spot Between the City and the Suburbs
  • If You Build It, We Will Thrive
  • Is It Time to Reimagine the American Schoolyard?
  • We Can’t Build Our Way to Net Zero. I had not seen this one before. It focuses on renovation and re-use of previously built structures.

As with the previous editions, this one is filled with pumped up Progressive rhetoric and special pleading. But it also has some pieces focused on real problems and novel solutions. While I can’t recommend this ebook, I certainly can’t condemn it, either. However, if you’ve read the previous editions there’s really no need to get this one.

Long-Term Recovery Plan issued for Gulf after BP Oil Spill

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America’s Gulf Coast; A Long Term Recovery Plan after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, 130 pp. Sept.29, 2010. The report does not have a table of contents or an executive summary. The only summary I could find was the press release.

The first 20 pages are the body of the report.  A series of Recovery Planning Checklists are included in the report, which are interesting.  This is more specific guidance than has been offered to state and local officials than provided to date by any federal officials, to my knowledge. The BP Oil Spill disaster is important, since it is the only example we have of all phases of emergency management taking place under the authority of the Oil Pollution Act/National Contingency Plan rather than the  Stafford Act /National Response Framework for major-to-catastrophic size disaster.

I welcome comments and feedback.

Related articles:

Administrative changes needed to improve federal preparedness and response

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Oil spill containment boom, shown holding back oil

Image via Wikipedia

In an article titled All Together Now, there is a discussion of the coordination needed at the federal level for disasters generally and for an oil spill in particular.  The article is subtitled: Collaboration-minded feds discover that getting agencies to work together is easier said than done.

Also on Sept. 15th, the Washington Post had a short news item regarding the management consulting study now underway at the new a bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM), which formerly was the Minerals Management Service.  In case you forgot, that is the agency that mismanaged the BP Oil Spill.  The article notes that the McKinsey Co. study will not be completed until next year. A few more details are in this Wash Post note.

Let’s try not to have another spill until the results are know and implemented!

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Mixed Views from Scientists re Environmental Effects of BP Oil Spill

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BP OIL SPILL Disaster

Image by The Latest Slub: via Flickr

Some good news is always welcome. Gulf Spill May Defy Darkest Predictions, NY Times, Sept. 13.

Nevertheless, not everyone is optimistic.  Some additional scientific work indicates significant amounts of oil have settled to the floor of the seabed. Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor.

A core sample from the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico shows a 2-inch layer of oily material. Researchers are finding oil on the seafloor miles away from the blown-out BP well.  Though researchers have yet to chemically link the oil deposits to the BP well, “the sheer coverage here is leading us all to come to the conclusion that it has to be sedimented oil from the oil spill because it’s all over the place,” says one scientist.

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The long-view on the Gulf Oil Spill

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Scientists Dispute Government Stance on the Lingering Effects of Gulf Oil. ProPublica,  August 17, 2010.

…scientists seemed, on the whole, rather skeptical when a government report said most of the oil from BP’s well was gone from the Gulf of Mexico. [1] Now the pushback against the government’s stance has grown, with several scientific reports released this week.

Restoring the Gulf. editorial in NY Times, August 18.  Note: this author commented more than a  month ago on this blog that the job Mr. Mabus was assigned is not a part-time position.

Oil Spill – focus shifts to long-term effects

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Worries about recovery come to the foreground, now that the well has been capped. See As oil spill cleanup shifts gears, gulf residents fear they’ll be forgotten.

The [LA] state government said this week that erosion eats away 29 square miles — more than Arlington County — every year.

What about the gulf’s “dead zone”? This year, it covered 7,722 square miles of the gulf, an area nearly the size of Massachusetts that lacked the oxygen that some fish, crabs and oysters need to breathe. But fixing it would require making changes all the way up the Mississippi River, which brings down the pollutants that feed the algae blooms that suck out the oxygen — making changes at feedlots in Iowa and sewage plants in Illinois. “I can’t see how they could just restore everything that needs restoration. There’s just too many problems,” said Nancy Rabalais, who heads the LA Universities Marine Consortium….

She worries, in essence, that the gulf will simply be returned to its regularly scheduled disaster.  “It doesn’t have the political attention” that the spill commanded, she said.

In an interview over the past weekend, Adm. Allen was asked to assess the job that BP did. His partial reply is as follows: Allen gives BP a mixed grade.

“The technology that was needed to be brought in for other parts of the world, was [brought in]. It took a long time to engineer it. It took a long time to install it. But, ultimately, it helped us put the cap on and control the well. So I give them fairly good marks there.” But Allen added that where the energy giant’s performance has been lacking is in having a human touch. *** “… they’re a large global oil production company. They don’t do retail sales or deal with individuals on a transactional basis. Anything that’s involved, that has been a real struggle for them….”


BP Oil Disaster–Where is the oil?

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Yesterday we reported the official estimate  that almost 5 million barrels of oil have been released into the gulf, yet, everyone seems to be asking the same question: Where did it all go?  A couple of interesting sources are available to address this quandary.

First, a Louisiana based television station took a camera and reporter out to a barrier island to investigate reports of oil beneath the sand. The beaches appeared clean, however, just walking in the sand provided hints to the trouble below as oil oozed up in the footprints, and many dead sand crabs littered the beach.

Secondly, another blog written by the University of Georgia Department of Marine Science, simply entitled “Gulf Oil Blog” also asked the question:  Where has the oil gone?  Their Aug. 1 blog posting attempts to quash rumors that the oil has just magically evaporated and/or been eaten by microorganisms. From that posting:

Should we be relieved?  Is this disaster over?

On the whole, I believe the answer to both questions is no.  It is a relief that the volume of surface oil is reduced, as this lowers the probability of oil-fouling of coastal beaches and marshes.  However, it’s likely that a great deal of oil is still out there in the Gulf of Mexico’s waters, it’s just no longer visible to us.

While some of the oil has most certainly evaporated, much of it was dispersed and this oil is still floating around, invisible to our eyes, within the ocean’s water column.   Some of the oil has probably sedimented to the seafloor, where it is also invisible to our eyes.  The fact that this oil is “invisible” makes it no less of a danger to the Gulf’s fragile ecosystems.  Quite the contrary, the danger is real and the danger is much more difficult to quantify, track and assess.

The Gulf Oil Blog also addresses the question of how to determine the long-term impacts from all of the dispersants used in this response. Although official tests have pointed to no more toxicity than oil alone (per yesterday’s EPA report), some scientists seem to be unconvinced. This Huffington Post article, originally posted on July 29 is entitled: “Scientist Find Evidence that Dispersant Mix are Making Their Way into the Food Chain“. The scientist they quote are from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and Tulane University.

Clearly there is much to learn, and this disaster will be with us for many years to come.

Thanks again to Claire for letting me blog, Kim.

BP Oil Spill–New Spill Estimates: almost 5 million barrels

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New spill estimates released August 2 suggest that 4.9 million barrels of oil (give or take 10%), or 205,000,000 gallons have been released from the Deepwater Horizon oil well.  Of that, they estimate that about 16%, or 800,000 barrels (33.6 million gallons) has been captured. For comparisons sake, the Exxon Valdez spilled 750,000 barrels (31.5 million gallons), and this spill now exceeds the former-largest spill, the 1979  Ixtoc I, which released 140,000,000 gallons.  How they achieved this new estimate is described on the  Deepwater Horizon Unified Command page:

The installation of a new containment cap and the subsequent well integrity testing procedure provided the opportunity to calculate the flow by measuring the pressure at the top of the well as the choke and kill valves were manipulated after the main containment valve was closed to trap hydrocarbons.

Also of interest on the Deepwater Unified Command page was the EPA’s release of the results from toxicity testing on “mixtures of eight oil dispersants with Louisiana Sweet Crude Oil.” The result: “dispersant-oil mixtures are generally no more toxic to the aquatic test species than oil alone.”

On other note, the spill is having an impact as far north as Canada. According to the Ontario Star newspaper, as fall approaches the issue of migratory birds that winter in the Gulf Coast region has come into focus. Of major concern are white pelicans, which just came off the endangered species list, but many other birds could be “flying to their demise”. This is impacting many segments of Canadian society:

Scientists aren’t the only ones concerned about the impact the spill may have on Canada’s migratory birds. Aboriginal groups who have for centuries hunted ducks, geese and other waterfowl to feed their families are urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama to get involved.

The article mentions a program established by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service which has set up the “Migratory Bird Habitat Initiate” in an effort to mitigate this problem. They are paying farmers in portions of eight states to flood their fields in order to “enhance habitat for migratory birds”.

The Diva will be back from vacation tomorrow. Claire, thanks for letting me stand in for you!

Guest Blogger, Kim Stephens

Oil Spill Disaster – July 30 – commercial fishing to resume

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Two news articles about the resumption of fishing off the LA coast: Commercial fishing east of Mississippi River could reopen this week; and another account in Bloomberg News. The decision to resume fishing was supported by the U.S. Food and Drug Admin. [Thanks to Laura Olson for pointing out these articles.]

On the dark side, today’s NY Times has an article titled Gulf of Mexico Has Long Been a Sink of Pollution, NYT, July 30.  Here are some excerpts:

The gulf is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the hemisphere, a stopping point for migratory birds from South America to the Arctic, home to abundant wildlife and natural resources. But like no other American body of water, the gulf bears the environmental consequences of the country’s economic pursuits and appetites, including oil and corn. There are around 4,000 offshore oil and gas platforms and tens of thousands of miles of pipeline in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, where 90 percent of the country’s offshore drilling takes place. At least half a million barrels of oil and drilling fluids had been spilled offshore before the gusher that began after the April 20 explosion, according to government records.

The article then goes on to discuss the latest addition of oil to the waters, saying the Gulf region has been a “sacrifice zone” for the past 50 years. Some additional quotes:

All along the coast, people speak of a lack of regulatory commitment and investment in scientific research on the gulf by state and federal lawmakers.

Some of the strongest resistance to tough regulation, as well as the most permissive attitude toward industry and property development, has come from the Gulf States themselves.

The last line in this article is as follows: “You can fool people, but you cannot fool the fish.”

Another commentary, this one from the environmental community: Deception by dispersal; the great Gulf oil tragedy.

Trust. That’s a feeling severely lacking in the fishing community here. No one trusts anyone after three months of anxiety and depression, watching wave and wave of oil pour into their fishing grounds. They don’t trust BP, the Louisiana fish and wildlife agencies, the EPA or virtually every politician who parades through these communities with false promises and grandstanding accusations. They’ve seen it before during Katrina. Now they’re seeing it again. Some people who are connected are making good money off the misfortune of others. Most are just trying to get by.