Hurricane season guide
Hurricane power checklist for Jamaican homes
The lesson from Hurricane Melissa: when it struck in October 2025, more than 70% of JPS customers (over 500,000) lost power, and some areas waited weeks for restoration. The homes that coped best had three things ready before the storm: charged batteries, a way to recharge without the grid, and a plan for the fridge and medical devices.
Before the season (May–June)
- List your must-run devices: fridge, fans, lights, phones, router, CPAP or other medical equipment. Then size your backup.
- Get backup power in place early. Stock and delivery get tight once a storm is named.
- Test your power station or battery at home: run your fridge on it for an hour so you know it works.
- Check it's 50Hz-rated if it plugs into JPS power. Here's why.
- Buy a solar panel to recharge if outages could last more than a day.
- Save key numbers (JPS, ODPEM, your doctor, family) on paper as well as your phone.
When a storm is 3–5 days out
- Charge every power station, power bank and battery to 100%.
- Charge phones, laptops, rechargeable fans and lamps.
- Turn the fridge and freezer to their coldest settings and fill empty space with bottles of water. A full, cold freezer holds temperature longer.
- Download offline maps and important documents to your phone.
- Bring solar lights, panels and cameras inside or secure them before the wind picks up.
During the outage
- Unplug sensitive electronics from the wall to protect them from surges when power returns.
- Run the fridge in cycles (for example, a few hours on, then off) to stretch your battery, and keep the door shut.
- Prioritise: medical devices first, then the fridge, then fans and lights, then entertainment.
- Recharge with solar during daylight once the storm has passed and it's safe to set up a panel outside.
- Gas generators: never indoors, in a garage or near windows. Carbon monoxide kills. A battery power station is safe to use inside.
After the storm
- Wait a few minutes after JPS power returns before plugging appliances back in.
- Recharge your backup to 100% right away. Outages often repeat while the grid is being repaired.
- Check panels and cables for damage before using them.
Hurricane setup: pair a ~2 kWh power station (like the EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max) with a 200W folding solar panel, so you can recharge from the sun when the grid is down for days.