KINGSTON, Jamaica — Hurricane Melissa’s death toll increased to 32 on Monday afternoon in Jamaica, according to Dana Morris Dixon, the education minister.

During a news conference, Morris Dixon said the death toll was set to increase to 40 after the confirmation process of eight additional cases.

Morris Dixon said recovering the bodies has been a very painful process, and there are still areas where bodies have not been retrieved.

“Just thinking about it is really, really painful,” Morris Dixon said.

Morris Dixon said schools suffered damage all around the country, so there was a committee working on options to reopen, such as using tents, so children can go back to class.

“There are no walls, there are no windows, there is nothing,” Morris Dixon said about St. Elizabeth Technical High School in Santa Cruz.

Morris Dixon said water had to be restored first. Matthew Samuda, the minister of water, said the systems on the western side of the island were not functioning.

Jamaican public water outages on Nov. 3 The red dots show where the water service was not working on Nov. 3 in Jamaica.

Samuda attributed some of the water service disruptions to a lack of generators and power outages.

There were 550,000 customers without service after the hurricane made landfall as a Category 5 on Oct. 28, and the service had been restored to 206,000 customers as of Monday, according to Hugh Grant, the president and chief executive officer of Jamaica Public Service.

Desmond McKenzie, the minister of local government, said seven municipalities had been severely affected, including the St. Elizabeth parish in southwestern Jamaica.

Robert Morgan, the minister of infrastructure, said the St. Elizabeth parish suffered the worst damage to the roads. There were fallen trees and flooding still blocking roads.

“We have communities completely cut off. We have houses that have been swallowed up,” Pearnel Charles, Jr., the minister of labor, said, adding there were ongoing evacuation missions.

Helicopters by the Jamaica Defence Force, the U.S. military, and nongovernmental organizations were at work. Charles said JDF and partners have been dropping off food and water packages.

“Most of the work is chainsaw work,” Morgan said about improving road access to distribute aid.

Daryl Vaz, the telecommunication minister, said Starlink devices were being used to establish connectivity with community WiFi, to help restore cell phone service, and to connect ATMs.

Olivia Grange, the minister of culture, said the government had a volunteer registry and the Support Jamaica fund. Grange also asked the public to attend the I Love Jamaica events on Dec. 7 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami-Dade County with Shaggy and a concert at the Miramar Regional Park in Broward County.

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Hurricane Melissa’s death toll in Jamaica increases to 32, officials say

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