LAUREN FRAYER, HOST:
It's been a little more than a month since Hurricane Melissa became one of the strongest hurricanes in history to make landfall. Scientists say this storm was clearly influenced by climate change. People in Jamaica are worried about what that means for future storms. NPR's Eyder Peralta reports.
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EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Joseph Ray stands in front of his house, looking at the hills of Bluefields. Sixty years he's lived here, and they've always been green. Now, as if someone poured salt over the land, they are brown.
JOSEPH RAY: This is outrageous. All the trees - if you light fire, everything is going to just blaze.
PERALTA: Ray's home was damaged, but he's also worried about his bees.
RAY: The storm damaged the boxes, and there's one hive there. I'm not sure what happened to the other apiaries. I haven't been there yet.
PERALTA: Glenwick Clarke, his friend, is an expert beekeeper.
GLENWICK CLARKE: Right now, what we are seeing based on the destruction of the trees, there's no feeding surrounding for the bees.
PERALTA: The bees can't find food in the wild, he says, so they're venturing into homes looking for sustenance.
CLARKE: And it's not just the bees. You're talking about the butterfly. You're talking about the doctor birds. All of them are in danger of dying.
PERALTA: Clarke says they are going to have to start feeding the bees to save them. Without them, he says, Jamaica's crops will also die.
CLARKE: No pollination, no food.
PERALTA: He says they can start planting fast-blossoming vegetables, like cucumbers and pumpkins, to give the humans and bees some relief. But the trees - that's going to take a long time.
CLARKE: The trees go through the same emotion as us. You know, traumatized, stress, all of this. And this is strong.
PERALTA: Scientists are still sifting through the data, but Hurricane Melissa might very well go down as the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in recorded history. Professor Michael Taylor, who studies climate change at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, says they just concluded a rapid attribution study, and one thing is clear.
MICHAEL TAYLOR: There's a clear climate change imprint on Melissa.
PERALTA: The Caribbean Sea, for example, is much warmer than it used to be. And for hurricanes, warm waters equals fuel. Melissa intensified quickly from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in 24 hours.
TAYLOR: I think this has broken all records. It's twice or three times the standard that you set for what rapid intensification is.
PERALTA: This study found that Hurricane Melissa's rapid intensification was made six times more likely because of climate change.
ALLISON MORRIS: All right. Ready?
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PERALTA: In Black River, on the south coast of Jamaica, the St. John's Anglican Church had stood for nearly 200 years. Allison Morris used to lead historical tours of the church, and she also used to play the church's more-than-century-old organ. Hurricane Melissa destroyed all of it.
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PERALTA: Morris found out the day after the hurricane. She walked along the coast from her house toward the church with her daughter. The only thing left standing was the bell tower.
MORRIS: We just started bawling in the street. I actually - I didn't go down on my knees, but I knew I was crouched. I couldn't stand. And she just came and we just - we bawled, and we bawled, and we bawled, and we bawled.
PERALTA: Back in the day, Black River was the first town in Jamaica to have electricity. Its downtown was full of historic buildings. It survived earthquakes and hurricanes before they were even given names. But now it's all gone. And to Morris, everything seems to have changed.
MORRIS: If you go upon my roof, this is the first time that we have been able to see the sea from here.
PERALTA: The mangroves and the big old trees are gone. Morris says this town always felt like a sanctuary, but this storm has left them shaken.
MORRIS: So you even wonder, if we hear another Category 5 is coming, would we even stay here?
PERALTA: And what happens, she thinks, if the next one defies the categories? Should they even be here now?
Eyder Peralta, NPR News in Western Jamaica. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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