Prior to Hurricane Melissa, the most powerful hurricane to make landfall in Jamaica was Hurricane Gilbert in mid-September of 1988. Described as a tropical cyclone, Gilbert directly struck Jamaica when it was still a Cat 3, wreaking havoc on that country and several others in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. It intensified to a Category 5 storm the day after making landfall in Jamaica, producing estimated storm surges of 19 feet.
Somewhat miraculously, only an estimated 45 people were killed, although damage estimates ranged from 800 million (USD) to $2 Billion, from crop damage, road damage and houses destroyed. Thousands evacuated to emergency shelters, some of which themselves were destroyed. At that time Jamaica’s prime minister Edward Seaga purportedly described areas initially struck by Gilbert as looking like “Hiroshima after the atom bomb was dropped.”
The United States went into action immediately. As described on the website of the Air Mobility Command Museum:
Responding to an appeal from the Jamaican and Haitian governments, the State Department organized a relief operation, coordinated by AID and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. Because commercial airlift of humanitarian relief supplies was not immediately available, the State Department requested a military airlift.
On September 13, a 314th Tactical Airlift Wing C–130 Hercules aircraft flew a State Department damage assessment team from Homestead AFB, Florida, to Kingston, Jamaica, to determine which supplies were most urgently needed. A day later, four C–130s—one from the 314th Tactical Airlift Wing and three from the Tennessee Air National Guard’s 118th Tactical Airlift Wing—transported 40 tons of relief equipment and supplies from Howard AFB, Panama, to Kingston. Their cargo included 360 rolls of plastic sheeting for temporary shelters, 200 tents, 9,600 cotton blankets, 10 chain saws, 3,960 five-gallon water containers, and 18 3,000-gallon water storage tanks.
The Military Airlift Command followed up on September 18 and 19 with an airlift of 130 tons of ready-to-eat meals, water purification tablets, tents, blankets, building materials, and other supplies from Howard AFB and from Kelly AFB, Texas. Two C–5s from the 433d and 436th Military Airlift Wings and a 437th Military Airlift Wing C–141 delivered the cargo to Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.
Three weeks later, on October 3, 1988, then-president Ronald Reagan announced the U.S. would provide a long-term damage assistance package to Jamaica for the hurricane damage, totaling $125 million. As indicated in Press Relations Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater’s statement at the time, “The U.S. Government immediately provided emergency equipment and supplies to Jamaica after the hurricane hit.” $125 million in 1988 would be approximately $342 million in purchasing power today, although estimates vary.
As of 7:45 am Tuesday, Hurricane Melissa was bearing down on Jamaica as a Category 5 storm with direct landfall on the island’s southern coast expected Tuesday morning. It’s obviously impossible to predict the damage and loss of life likely to ensue from this mammoth storm. But assuming it’s anywhere near the impact of Gilbert, it will be very bad.
That $125 million in U.S. aid in 1988 was provided at a time when the United States considered itself — at least to some extent — morally obligated to provide aid and rescue to desperate, impoverished countries stricken by unimaginable disasters. That aid was not necessarily taken for granted, but it was assumed, not just by the nation under severe duress — but as generally accepted and approved by the American public -- as an example of basic, humanitarian decency from a comparatively ultrawealthy country to one far less privileged.
It was one of those actions that made the United States an admired model for democracy. The Reagan administration did a lot of bad things, but its record on humanitarian foreign aid was not one of them. Of course we would provide aid. There was no question whether we would provide aid. As reported by Tom Guettler, writing in 2016 for Global Citizen, Reagan “believed that foreign assistance should be part of a larger foreign policy strategy to promote economic growth and democracy in the developing world and create long term allies for the US.”
But that was a different country. That is not the United States that exists today, in 2025, under complete Republican governance, where American generosity is apparently now largely contingent on the color of your skin.
How much aid do you think the Trump administration will provide to Jamaica in the aftermath of this disaster? What do you think the attitude of this "American" regime will be? What degree, even of concern, let alone sympathy, should we expect?
The agony of Jamaica may be just beginning. But if anyone, or any other nation, wants a clear and stark demonstration of just how far this country has fallen, in such a short span of time, I fear this is going to be their "teachable moment."
