LESSONS IN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS – OPEN’s JAMAICA AGRI-TECH PARTNER

THOUGHTFUL PREPARATION FOR RAPID RECOVERY AFTER CATEGORY 5 JAMAICA HURRICANE

Lessons from Smallholder Farmer Mr. Ruel Corniffe & Family — OPEN’s Hanover, Jamaica Ag Tech Model Farm Site

The Calm Before the Storm

On October 28, 2025, last minute preparations were being made by our business partner and good friend, Ruel Corniffe and his family tucked away in their small valley in Hanover, Jamaica. The OPEN team and our strategic technology partners had been working with Mr. Corniffe, a telecom and solar engineer and farmer, for several years, testing, refining, and financially and technically supporting the agriculture technology testbed there.

Recently, we had delivered free Internet-connected weather station technology to provide island-wide coverage for improved hyperlocal weather forecasting. The goal was to further protect farmers and citizens from extreme weather events, and to deliver helpful local weather data for improving yields, soils and plant health.

OPEN’s strategic partner, Tinkart’s AI-ML (Artificial Intelligence – Machine Learning) analytics systems were in place and operating in conjunction with the onsite sensor network, with sensors situated strategically on and around our farm plots. This integrated AI-ML system delivers actionable real time environmental assessments and farm management support to the farmer, and upstream to the Ministry (see screenshots below for AI assessment examples).

Our 20 gateway devices to network our 77 weather stations and other ag tech across the island allowing us to deliver realtime data to the Jamaica Meteorological Service and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Minerals, were being readied for shipment from the U.S.

The Day of the Storm, a Final Call and Then…

The day that Melissa made landfall, Ruel and I discussed their extensive preparations, and we were glad to learn that he and his family were safe as possible given the potential of this deadly storm. He had sent a nice but gray sky video a few hours before it made landfall – very much the calm before the storm. Ruel was hopeful that the mountains surrounding his and many other local farms would lessen the impact of this record-breaking hurricane.

And then the storm hit this and other West side island communities HARD at between 12 – 2 pm, and our communications were severed for 23 days. The few roads in to their valley we were sure were blocked by downed trees, mud slides, and other flotsam and jetsam. The cellular service to his valley was definitely down and out.

We were hopeful but very worried, as no other colleagues or friends had heard from Ruel or anyone else in this area. Finally almost a month with no word, a WhatsApp text came through. To say we were all relieved was an understatement. They were battered badly and reeling but were all alive. About a week after reconnect we were able to Zoom connect and learned more of what had transpired in this Hanover valley.

Damage High, Damage Low

Like so many others on the west side of the island, roadways and communications were severed, but then eventually one lane was cleared into this valley, and cell services came back online. No knock on the service providers however, that took a long time for those of us waiting and not knowing Ruel’s family and neighbors’ fate.

We had logically figured much clean up and reconstruction lay ahead. However, in Ruel’s case….

Forethought and Careful Preparations Meets Distributed Renewable Power Infrastructure, and …. Lessons in Climate Resilience

A few years ago in the midst of designing, deploying and customizing Ruel’s sensor network, data dashboard backend systems with its integrated AI analytics, Ruel and his family had also installed a DIY solar power system with a backup batteries 24 volts 4000 watts system on his grounds. Given the increasing intensity of Caribbean hurricanes over the last decade or more, Ruel built this energy system to endure severe weather. He also designed and built his house and storage buildings to withstand typical category 1-3 storms, but who had built to face off against a greater than Category 5 monster?

Well when we finally heard from Ruel a month after the storm passed, the news all around exceeded our best case expectations. Ruel and his family were as well prepared as possible for Melissa with enough potable water capacity of 5,500 gallons total in separate water tanks with rainwater harvesting system and backup emergency supplies.

Post-Hurricane Recovery and Results

The 24 volts 4000 watts DIY solar power system remained operational through the CAT-5 Hurricane. Emergency VHF amateur radio station provided communications with local group members, and 4G modems provided connectivity until the Internet from the local carrier went down.

His DIY wooden house made from local lumber harvested from our property and built by local bush builder experts. His well-built home only lost one metal roof sheet, but all held together. The wooden outer storage and other facilities had rain come through, but held together just fine. A chicken coop was bent over from the winds and heavy rain. He lost his quail, some chickens, and some of his Scotch Bonnet pepper crop. Everyone was safe as were the other thirty farm families in his valley in Hanover. Some of course were worse off than others.

During the communications gap time, structures were fixed and further reinforced, crops replanted, and over a month later the leaves are coming back on trees stripped bare of leaves from the tornado force winds. The resilience of nature and humans is evident across this Hanover valley and the island.

Technology Performance Under Pressure

Our highly integrated network systems built for a wide range of outdoor weather conditions were not yet tested to withstand nature’s fury of that magnitude, so we were keen to see how they held up. And hold-up they did, beyond expectations.

All sensors, networking equipment, and seemingly vulnerable weather stations were not damaged or knocked over, and they immediately came back online delivering their data payloads as soon as the Internet connection resumed.

Future Safeguards

A missing element for the future would be backup Starlink or similar Internet linked LEO satellite system for remote farms. OPEN partner Imcon’s Disaster Response Internet Backpack also could be provided for every isolated village (can include mesh off Internet grid device capabilities and mini Starlink, high capacity battery, fold up solar panels and router).

With our partner Nightjar we are soon releasing an edge mesh sensor data network storage and diagnostic system. If the Internet is knocked offline, sensor data will be locally stored on this mesh edge system. When the Internet resumes all data now backed up locally will be sent to our cloud servers and the farmers’ and Ministry and Meteorological Service’s data dashboards, and our Jamaica data repository will be fully updated. This also allows farmers to link with several other neighboring farms for safety and security alerts, and even protection against predial larceny. This multi-hop system allows for up to seven farms to connect using just one sensor gateway with one Internet connection (1 farm as hub).

Benefits for Ag Tech and AI Management Systems in Jamaica

Jamaican farmers as well-equipped as Ruel’s farm can reap the many benefits of climate smart agriculture technologies and our highly successful and well-tested regenerative farming methodology. Such systems coupled with our regenerative natural farming solution deliver:

Continuous Data 24/7: For informed decision-making for farmers to take timely corrective action on soils and to deliver organic pest and disease treatments when the crops show the first signs of trouble.
Water Conservation: Our irrigation control systems, simple ground capture systems, and weather models promote water conservation and greater tolerance against erosion and extended drought episodes.
Health and Environment: Regenerative farming practices such as intercropping companion crops also reduce the need for chemical treatments that pollute fresh water sources, decimate essential soil microbiology, and gravely threaten farmer and field helpers’ health.
Productivity: Lastly, more productive farms and improved crop health result using the same land space, thus conserving forests and helpful biodiversity.