On October 28, Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm ever to strike Jamaica as a Category 5, made landfall near Montego Bay, unleashing catastrophic damage across the island as winds peaked at 185 mph. The storm demolished thousands of homes, left entire communities without power or running water, and triggered widespread flooding. Drone footage reveals apocalyptic scenes of uprooted trees and flattened neighborhoods. The death toll sits at 28 currently but is expected to rise as rescue missions progress.
Glenn Beck’s nonprofit, Mercury One, is actively on the ground providing relief in several communities across the island.
On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn spoke with Jack Brewer, founder and chairman of the Jack Brewer Foundation and a Mercury One partner, about the devastation he witnessed in Jamaica.
As the founder of his own disaster relief foundation, Jack has seen his fair share of devastations caused by natural disasters in the 20 years the Jack Brewer Foundation has been operating.
But Hurricane Melissa is the “one of the worst ones” he’s ever witnessed.
“Homes completely leveled — I mean, down to the foundation. And, you know, the entire west side of Jamaica is without water, without electricity. … The infrastructure electricity-wise is pretty old, and so the electric wires are just twisted all in the trees,” he says.
Because Jamaica is “tough terrain,” as much of the country is mountainous, it’s taking relief organizations longer than usual to reach people in need, Jack explains.
The scarcity has caused a lot of chaos. “You see just piles and piles of humans sitting next to each other trying to get water. They’re washing their clothes with the salt water and … there’s fights at the gas pump because people are trying to desperately get enough fuel,” he tells Glenn.
“The most heartbreaking thing,” however, is that downed poles, flooded substations, and uprooted trees blocking repairs mean that “folks haven’t found their family members,” Jack says.
“When I was there, they had just found six more bodies in the area, and they were asking us for cadaver dogs and asking us if we could assist with them.”
And the worst part is: “No one has come.”
“I went to village after village, town after town. No aid organization had come,” Jack says, noting that it hasn’t stopped raining in Jamaica, making travel even more difficult.
With homes and shelters decimated and waters continuing to rise, Jack says the Jamaican people, many of whom are sleeping outside, are now facing “waterborne diseases and mosquitos.”
Right now, the best relief organizations can do is help with temporary solutions, like delivering tents and insect repellent.
“Can you compare this to what we saw in North Carolina?” Glenn asks, referencing Hurricane Helene, which ravaged parts of North Carolina in September 2024 and caused billions of dollars in damage.
“No question,” says Jack. “The difference is, in North Carolina, we have something called insurance, and we have helicopters, and our fellow Americans can get there. … In Jamaica, they don’t have that option. … The people were already living in poverty.”
But praise God, there is joy that transcends all circumstances. “The love of God and the thankfulness and the smiling and the worshipping that was happening in these towns I was in … it lifted me up,” Jack says. “It humbled me to see people that had literally lost it all, but they were so thankful, and they said, ‘You know what? We’re living to see another day. God has given us a chance to recover. We have our life; we have our children.’”
Glenn encourages his audience to donate whatever they can to Mercury One and notes that 100% of donations go to relief initiatives.
“Go to mercuryone.org, and help us help people,” Glenn says.
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