What’s Happening in Black River? A Breakdown of the Relief Failure After the Hurricane

Residents from Black River, St. Elizabeth are sounding the alarm, and frankly, it’s hard not to share their outrage. In the fragile hours after the hurricane swept through, what should have been a coordinated, decisive government response instead looked like hesitation, confusion, and absence.

People are alleging that the relief agencies on the ground were ineffective—no tents, no structured food program, no organized medical presence. In a disaster of this scale, essential services should have been stationed and ready: emergency tents, mobile clinics, water and sanitation units, ground teams tracking displaced residents, and a rapid deployment of resources to stabilize those most affected. That simply did not happen.

Instead, helicopters circled overhead, assessing the destruction from a distance, while families on the ground waited—hungry, exposed, unaccounted for. Displaced residents still don’t have proper shelter. They don’t have a central point of service. They don’t have a coordinated system guiding them toward safety, medical care, or basic necessities. In 2025, after so many global lessons in disaster management, this should never be the story.

And yet here we are.

Let’s be clear: relief comes before rebuilding. Before talk of construction, procurement, or long-term recovery, there must be tents, food, water, sanitation, health services, child protection services, and community support teams on the ground immediately. That’s Emergency Response 101. You stabilize the people, then you move to rebuilding the community.

But from all accounts, Jamaica’s government response is lagging—and community members are noticing. Many are openly saying that if it weren’t for people like Shaggy and other Jamaican celebrities abroad, flying in and stepping up, many families would still be starving, stranded, and forgotten.

It shouldn't take celebrity intervention for people to get basic relief.

So the question stands like a heavy drumbeat: What is going on?

Why weren’t emergency tents pre-positioned? Why wasn’t there an immediate medical and sanitation rollout? Why do residents have to beg for what should be automatic in a disaster?

And most importantly:

Who is accountable for this breakdown, and when will the people of Black River get the relief they deserve?

By Rev. Renaldo C McKenzie, Author of "Neoliberalism. Globalization, Income Inequality Poverty and Resistance".