PNP presses government on hurricane relief spending as parish briefings cover readiness and crime

The People's National Party is keeping up pressure on the administration over how money raised for people hit by hurricanes is being handled, focused on destruction from Hurricane Melissa in October last year.

Shadow spokesperson on social protection and social transformation Dr. Angela Brown-Burke said she could not reconcile the scale of damage and need with accounts that only a tiny fraction of the sums collected had actually been spent. Speaking to TVJ News, she cited roughly J$1.4 billion raised against about J$26 million spent, and said almost J$139 million linked to the earlier Hurricane Beryl response still sat unused. She called that pattern a breakdown in leadership and rejected suggestions that procurement alone explained the shortfall, pointing to the prime minister’s earlier pledge to pull the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management closer to his office to fix delivery.

Brown-Burke also raised claims that donated food spoiled and was discarded before it reached families, and she insisted on openness about how supplies and cash were managed. She encouraged people still waiting on help after Melissa to make more noise through parish offices and their members of parliament, saying the situation was grim rather than a political talking point to celebrate.

Separately, police in St. Mary identified Oneil Tavares, 28, as the pedestrian who died after he was struck Thursday night by a Toyota HiAce on the Huddersfield main road near Emerald Estate. Investigators were told he had earlier been pelting stones at a female security guard on the property; witnesses tied the death to that episode, and enquiries continued.

Across the parish line in St. Thomas, medical officer of health Dr. Doyen Smith told a recent municipal corporation meeting that Port Morant Hospital is preparing early for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. He stressed that prolonged power loss often cuts water service, so a new 150 000-gallon storage tank is intended to keep the facility operating for up to two weeks if piped supplies fail.

Deputy Superintendent Rowan Ritchie, commanding officer for the St. Thomas Police Division, reported more housebreakings and larceny in Morant Bay, noting many targets lacked cameras or other security and were hit while empty. He said the division had put undisclosed overt and covert measures in place to answer the trend.