Direct aid being airlifted or delivered by sea by the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) to communities severely affected by the passage of Hurricane Melissa on October 28 will soon be reduced or discontinued.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness made this announcement during a press briefing on Wednesday, November 19, at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Andrew.

He said, instead, the JDF’s efforts will be redirected to helping with the rebuilding process.

“They have established an effective supply chain, and they are providing security for the convoys and they are providing security for the communities, and they are actually out there delivering packages, but this cannot continue forever or for much longer. We will transition very shortly, and I want to prepare the public for the transition that will happen,” Dr Holness explained.

“It won’t be so much a focus on the humanitarian food and care packages, they will have to shift now to the distribution of construction, repair and rebuilding materials,” he said.

He described the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) as the brain, eyes and ears of the operations in this crisis, while the JDF are the hands and legs.

“They do the logistics. In the initial stage of the response, the JDF flew almost 600 hours of missions, 193 missions, and that would include search and rescue, delivery of aid, all kinds of operations,” Dr Holness said. “Just to say that I don’t think the JDF gets all the recognition it deserves and the value of the service they give.”

Dr Holness recalled a telephone conversation recently with Member of Parliament James Robertson, who called about a man trapped in a river, with what appeared to be a broken leg for days, and the JDF flew and rescued him with proper coordinates. “That’s one of many rescues that were done, so the JDF plays a very critical role in giving the capability to the plans that the government lays,” Dr Holness explained.

The JDF has around 8,000 members and has deployed more than 2,000 in the direct operations of the disaster relief. Aside from their missions to deliver by air and sea, the JDF coastguard has delivered over 10,000 packages to communities in the last three weeks.

Additionally, the JDF manages the stores of some of the donations made to ODPEM in relief. The JDF also does packaging, delivery to the “hub and smokes”, which Dr Holness said will be maintained around the country.

“They have established several centres, several hubs where goods are moved from the main warehouse to those areas and then some additional sub stations where the goods are moved to them, and then the goods are moved to the communities,” he said.