Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica on October 28, 2025 as an almost perfect storm. A sustained wind speed of 185 mph with gusts of up to 213 mph made it as intense as a feared Enhanced Fujita (EF) 5 tornado. While a major tornado has a diameter of two miles, Hurricane Melissa had a diameter of 60 miles with tropical storm winds extending a further 165 miles. Wave surges of up to 13 ft and 15” to 40” of rain fell. Melissa also travelled at nine mph, giving those in the path approximately seven hours of continuous unimaginable terror.
In response to the continual threat from multiple hurricanes each year, the trade block of Caribbean states (CARICOM) approved a Code of Practice for the construction of houses in 2023. The prescriptive standard was a Category 5 hurricane to the level of a 225 mph gust. The additional construction cost from a Category 3 to the Category 5 hurricane was approximately five per cent. The normal contingency amount in a residential construction contract is between five per cent and ten per cent, so it is affordable.
Wind damage
The wind damage was most severe in Jamaica’s western parishes and it ranged from partial loss of the roof cladding to the collapse of the entire house. However, despite the severe level of damage to so many houses, the majority of houses survived with only the partial loss of roof cladding. The question is how.
The basic structural engineering equation is that a structure fails when the load applied to it exceeds its ability to resist the load. The houses I saw in Jamaica were not built to survive Hurricane Melissa. So, how did so many survive while in its path?
The survivors’ response was to thank God for sparing their lives and homes. It seems miraculous that houses survived where Hurricane Melissa’s wind loads so far exceeded the houses’ wind resistance. Perhaps there was some innovative structural engineering design that Jamaicans practiced. I observed none. But I did observe vulnerable construction practices.
Construction practices
The common imported timber used for wall and roof frames in Jamaica was Southern Yellow Pine (SYP) from the USA. It is commonly used across the Caribbean. SYP has five main structural grades: Select Structural (SS), No.1, No.2, No.3 and No. 4. Only Select Structural (SS) and No.1 grades should be used in the main structure of roofs designed to resist hurricanes. This is because the frequent knots in grades No.2 to 4 are known points of failure during bending. Across Jamaica, I only saw SYP No.2 being used and sold.
Termites are known to damage softwoods like Southern Yellow Pine (SYP). That is why the national building codes in the Caribbean generally specify that they are to be pressure treated against termites. I found no SYP timber used or sold that was pressure treated against termites. However, the hardware stores insisted that it was until I showed them the stamp.
Vulnerable materials and methods
Timber is normally stamped to identify the species and treatment. The stamp indicated that timber was Heat Treated (HT) rather than Pressure Treated (PT). Heat treatment does not protect timber from termites. I have seen Heat Treated Southern Yellow Pine as the only option being sold in hardware stores across the eastern Caribbean, and was disheartened to see this contagion spread to our north-western Jamaican family.
Bracing reduces movement at timber joints during a hurricane. This should prevent the connections from failing from fatigue. I did not see any braced timber framed roofs or walls. Hurricane connectors reduce the risk of timber members separating. Hurricane connectors were generally absent in the houses I observed.
In summary, Jamaican houses I observed were built with a low structural grade timber that was vulnerable to weakening by termites. Further, the timber frames were not braced and they did not have hurricane connectors.
A mystery
If the houses that survived were digitally modelled and Hurricane Melissa wind loads mathematically applied, the calculations would show that the models would fail — badly. If physical models of the houses were tested in a wind-tunnel under Hurricane Mellissa winds, they would fail spectacularly. Yet, most houses survived the actual hurricane event. How?
Before considering the simplest but difficult-to-prove option that angels were dispatched to protect the houses from collapse, we should consider an option we may prove. Looking beyond the structural engineering resistance of the houses, the answer may be found in ecology. Many houses that survived were built among trees – which were devastated to the extent that some surviving residents expressed the novel experience of being able to look through the trees and see further afar.
A mystery solved
What reasonably explains the observed damage — and lack of it — is that the wind load was not primarily imposed on houses, but surrounding trees. Those trees bore the brunt of the impact and sacrificed their leaves, barks, limbs, trunks and roots in the process. Houses within the community of trees only experienced residual winds buffered by the trees.
Perhaps there is a lesson for all of us in the Caribbean. We need to plant more trees in our residential developments that are known to survive hurricanes, like: coconut, mahogany, tamarind and royal palm. Among them, we can plant robust fruit trees like: mango, avocado pear, guava, soursop and mamey apple. Every residential lot should have at least one. Their tree may not reduce the wind load sufficiently on their house, but it should benefit their neighbours — and their neighbours’ trees should benefit them.
Jamaicans continue to thank God for their survival, as they should. They may also plant trees to replace those that did not survive – and gratefully treasure those that did.
Grenville Phillips II is a Doctor of Engineering, Chartered Structural Engineer and President of Walbrent College. He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com.
The post Earth’s treasures appeared first on Barbados Today.