When Hurricane Melissa tore across western Jamaica at the end of October 2025, it left Cave Mountain perched on the edge of survival. Roads buckled. Homes split open. Hillsides collapsed. The storm's sustained winds and days of torrential rain took out the power and destroyed local water systems, displacing families across Westmoreland Parish in the west of Jamaica. In total, 1.6 million people were affected, and 190,000 buildings suffered major catastrophic damage.

Three months later, the mountain still bears the storm's imprint. Electricity has not returned, leaving the entire community dependent on generators and solar lamps for light. Many families remain under tarpaulin roofs, and although water service has technically "returned," what flows through the lines is still unsafe to drink - a daily reality shaping life for ten-year-old Ashoya.

In the wake of the withdrawal of most relief agencies Ashoya now relies on the Salvation Army's Cave Mountain Corps, a steep hike up the mountain from her home, as her only consistent access point for safe drinking water.

"That's when I met you guys" – Meeting Ashoya

When we met Ashoya, she was carrying a container almost as tall as her torso, tucked into her school backpack so she could carry the weight up the mountain.

"Today I was on my way around to church when I was catching water, and that's when I met you guys."

Her routine has become an essential choreography of survival.

"My journey to get water starts from right here. I go up the stairs, around the road, passing homes and shops broken by the storm… then I go around to the Salvation Army, and they have a little pipe. I love it - the water there is treated and safe to drink."

Before Hurricane Melissa, Cave Mountain had piped water running directly to homes. Families used it daily for washing, cooking, and cleaning, and life on the mountain followed a dependable routine built around that household supply.

"Before the hurricane… we were living very normal," she said. "Then the storm destroyed it."

In the weeks that followed, Ashoya, like others in her community, collected rainwater, boiled what they could, and rationed what they had. "We boiled the rainwater sometimes to drink and sometimes to cook," she explained.

Before the Salvation Army installed a community water tank outside the Cave Mountain Corps in December, six weeks after the storm, families had only two options: make the long journey down the mountain to buy bottled water at sharply increased post-storm prices or rely on river water for drinking, cooking, and washing.

For many on the mountain, the choice was stark: pay for expensive bottled water or take their chances with natural sources known to carry risk.

Unsafe Water, Rising Health Risks

Across western parishes, Melissa's flooding severely disrupted water systems, creating dangerous conditions for waterborne disease. The Jamaican Ministry of Health has confirmed multiple leptospirosis cases and deaths caused by exposure to contaminated water pooling in damaged communities, including the western belt where Cave Mountain sits. Floodwater mixed with animal waste became a persistent threat for families forced to fetch water from rivers or ruptured pipes.

Against this backdrop, treated water from the small Salvation Army pipe became a lifeline, and one that children like Ashoya depend on daily.

When water trucks did reach the mountain, residents filled drums and containers at the Cave Mountain Salvation Army church, a temporary relief in a place where safe water was otherwise out of reach.

"I get water to take baths, to do the dishes, and to drink. I do that almost every day because we really need the water."

The Salvation Army on Cave Mountain

The Salvation Army's work across western Jamaica intensified immediately after the hurricane, drawing on its network of 29 centers of service that already serve some of the island's most hard-to-reach communities.

As of January 2026, teams had helped serve over 212,000 people with emergency supplies, including 27,000 bottles of water, 25,000 hygiene kits, 9,000 food parcels, 131,000 meal kits, and 66,000 hot meals islandwide.

Cave Mountain, one of the worst-hit communities, received repeated waves of support:

• Food parcels, cooked meals, hygiene kits, and care parcels were delivered steadily from October through January.
• From early November through the end of January, families on Cave Mountain received repeated distributions recorded in Salvation Army logs, ranging from cooked meals to relief parcels and partner-provided meals from organizations such as World Central Kitchen and Mercy Chefs.

To restore basic dignity and reduce the physical burden on families like Ashoya's, a new community water tank was installed outside the Cave Mountain Salvation Army Corps in December 2025. This tank now provides safe drinking water to any resident who needs it, which is a free, reliable supply in a place where reliability has become rare.

Ashoya filled her container from that very tank - something she now does several times a day.

"Ever since the storm, I've been quite a little bit traumatized."

When asked about life since Melissa, Ashoya's answers were matter of fact.

"Ever since the storm, I've been quite a little bit traumatized. One of my friends lost their mother… When you lose lovely things and people you really know, you have to keep pushing through the pain and smiling."

Her family is doing its best to stabilize daily life. With her mother caring for a baby and a young sibling, the responsibility on a ten-year-old's shoulders is heavy.

"Sometimes I have to help my mom… I help her every day. Sometimes I get lazy and don't want to do the dishes, but I do them so she can cook a nice meal for us to eat."

Electricity remains unreliable on the mountain. Generators and solar lamps light the nights; mosquitoes and darkness fill the hours when the current fails.

"Once the current goes out, it's total darkness," she said. "I have a solar light that is very bright and we use that at night."

Looking Forward

Despite everything she has endured, her sense of identity remains rooted in place.

"I love Jamaica. Sometimes I look back on my life and say, 'How great is Jamaica. I love my life.'"

There is no sentimentality in her voice when she says this - just a clear and steady understanding that home is still home, even when it has been broken open.

Life on Cave Mountain is far from restored. But today, there is clean water at the church. There is a path, however difficult, toward recovery. And there is a girl named Ashoya who carries her water container up the mountain each day, moving through the wreckage with a resilience that speaks for itself.

Her story is one of thousands that reveals the heart of The Salvation Army's work: showing up where infrastructure has failed, where roads end, where children still climb the hillside every day for basics most people never think about.

On this mountain, water is life. And while progress is slow, life is beginning to return.