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For far too long, young people on the autism spectrum have been sidelined from the kind of transformative international travel experiences that their neurotypical peers often take for granted. Now, one specialized charter school in South Florida is working to close that gap, launching a landmark four-day educational trip to Jamaica designed to build independence, boost confidence, and give autistic students access to the same life-enriching opportunities available to other young travelers.

The trip, which touched down on Jamaican soil on Friday, brings together a group of 20 students, their family members, and staff members from the South Florida Autism Charter School (SFACS). Over the course of their stay, the group will be hosted at Iberostar Resort, where they will get to explore many of Jamaica’s most iconic attractions, including the world-famous Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios, St. Ann, where the group posed for photos on Saturday, June 6, 2026.

Dr. Tamara Moodie, founder of SFACS and a Jamaica native, shared the core vision behind the unique initiative in an interview with Observer Online. She explained that the trip addresses a longstanding barrier for autistic youth and their families: travel is often dismissed as too challenging due to common sensory sensitivities, behavioral needs, and complex logistics that come with planning a trip outside of one’s routine. As a result, many autistic students rarely get the chance to travel internationally, while their parents rarely get the chance to slow down and enjoy quality time with their children in a new, welcoming setting.

Moodie noted that the selection of Jamaica as the trip destination was no accident. For many of the participating students, this trip marks their first ever international journey, and for some, it is even their first time traveling on an airplane. Jamaica’s geographic proximity to South Florida made the logistics of travel far more manageable for students with support needs, while still offering all the cultural enrichment and excitement of visiting a new country.

Beyond geography, Moodie pointed to Jamaica’s well-earned reputation for warm, patient hospitality as a key draw. As someone who has traveled back to the island regularly with her own family, she has long experienced the welcoming culture of Jamaican people firsthand. She trusted that the island’s tourism industry would provide the level of care, acceptance, and accommodation that her students and their families needed to feel comfortable and supported throughout their trip.

The initiative was originally planned several months in advance, but organizers had to postpone the departure date following the arrival of Hurricane Melissa. The delay ended up shrinking the group size significantly from initial plans – the original group was nearly three times larger than the current cohort – but Moodie expressed relief and excitement to finally turn the long-planned idea into a reality for the participating families.

For Moodie and the SFACS community, this trip is far more than a simple vacation. It is a chance to challenge misconceptions about what autistic young people can achieve, by giving them the space to step outside their daily routines, explore a new culture, meet new people, and build lasting shared memories with their families. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to prove that autistic students can thrive in international travel experiences that many once assumed were out of their reach.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — A full day after a widespread islandwide power outage swept across Jamaica overnight Friday and into early Saturday morning, approximately 65,000 domestic and commercial customers connected to the National Water Commission (NWC) still lack running water, accounting for 12 percent of the utility’s total customer base across the country.

The update was delivered Saturday afternoon by Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change Matthew Samuda during a joint press briefing held at the headquarters of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), the nation’s primary electricity provider. Energy, Transport and Telecommunications Minister Daryl Vaz joined Samuda for the briefing on ongoing recovery efforts.

Samuda outlined the core reason behind the lingering water access gaps, explaining that water system recovery follows a far slower timeline than power restoration. “The timing associated with charging an electricity line is a much shorter period than the timeline associated with backfilling water lines that ran dry because of the power outages that affected our power systems,” he told reporters.

Initial damage and system assessments completed Saturday confirmed that the country’s largest water treatment facilities and primary pumping stations have successfully resumed operations, Samuda confirmed. However, full service restoration in multiple communities will be held up by residual electrical issues that continue to impact water infrastructure located in the parishes of Clarendon, St Elizabeth, and St James. Even though JPS managed to restore power to nearly all customers by early Saturday, unexpected inclement weather later that day triggered new, localized power outages in several regions, complicating recovery work.

“While primary production facilities are rebounding quickly, our immediate priority is maintaining backup power systems and mobilising localised maintenance support to safely restart other systems and rebuild critical storage capacity in the lagging parishes,” Samuda said, adding that the government is prioritizing targeted support to hard-hit areas to speed up service returns.

The minister also released a detailed, parish-by-parish breakdown of the current status of water infrastructure across the country:

– Kingston and St Andrew (KSA): All major water systems are fully operational
– St Catherine: Most regional networks are back online, with the key Spanish Town Treatment Plant running normally. The Old Harbour network has been hit by a secondary power outage that is disrupting service to both Old Harbour and New Harbour communities.
– Manchester: Core water production facilities are operational, and storage and distribution tanks are currently being refilled. Gradual service restoration is expected for the Ingleside, New Green, Pusey Hill and Warwick re-lift stations, as well as the Perth Estate storage facility.
– Clarendon: Persistent water outages remain in effect across southern parts of the parish, impacting residents in New Town, Preddie, Kemps Hill, Milk River and Longville Park.
– St James: The Great River water system has been fully restored, while Terminal Reservoir and Appleton Hall tanks are in the process of being refilled. Temporary service disruptions are reported in Torado Heights, Rhyne Park, Cornwall Courts, Ironshore, Norwood, and Farm Heights.
– Trelawny: The Martha Brae water system is fully operational.
– St Elizabeth: All core systems have been restored, including the Benlomonds, Union, Bogue, Burnt Savannah, Hounslow, Content, and Southampton networks.
– St Ann: The Bogue and Harrison Town networks are back online, while the Minard plant is still undergoing assessment after experiencing an electrical trip during the blackout.
– Hanover: Maintenance crews are currently on-site carrying out repairs to the Shettlewood water system.
– Portland: The Grant’s Level system is operating at just 30 percent of its normal output, running on temporary generator power. Minor secondary facilities are scheduled for maintenance work.
– St Mary: Localized service disruptions are limited to the Iterboreale and Annotto Bay areas.
– St Thomas and Westmoreland: Full on-site field assessments are still ongoing, with formal updates to be released once evaluations are complete.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — A sudden strike of lightning sparked an unforeseen cascading system failure that left the entire island of Jamaica without power from late Friday into Saturday morning, and the national power provider has launched a full probe to pinpoint the root causes of the unprecedented outage, company leadership confirmed Saturday.

During a press conference held at the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) headquarters, Hugh Grant, JPS president and chief executive officer, detailed the sequence of events that led to the total grid shutdown. The initial lightning strike knocked out five critical transmission lines connected to a major substation serving Jamaica’s corporate area. Instead of being contained to the affected zone, the disruption spread uncontrollably through the power network in a cascading effect, which eventually shut down power generation facilities across the entire island, bringing the full national grid offline.

Grant emphasized that this widespread cascading shutdown was an event the utility never anticipated. “This is not an outcome we expected to see from a localized lightning strike,” he said. “Our priority right now is unpacking exactly what went wrong to allow this cascade to spread across the entire grid. That is the key lesson we need to capture moving forward.”

Despite the severity of the total blackout, Grant noted that backup contingency systems performed as designed. Within an hour of the grid going down, JPS technical crews were able to execute manual “black start” procedures to restart key power generators, restoring electricity to priority areas almost immediately. Phased restoration work continued through the overnight hours, and all customers had their service reconnected by late Saturday morning.

Energy, Transport and Telecommunications Minister Daryl Vaz previously described the full island outage as “unacceptable” as JPS launched its phased restoration work. Speaking alongside Vaz at Saturday’s briefing was Water, Environment and Climate Change Minister Matthew Samuda, signaling the government’s close attention to the high-impact incident.

Grant said the company would now move into a formal investigatory phase to map out every step of the outage, document key takeaways from the event, and implement concrete corrective actions to lower the risk of a similar widespread outage happening again. “We will not stop working until we get to the bottom of this incident,” Grant stated. “We are committed to full transparency around our findings, the lessons we learn, and the changes we will make to improve grid resilience going forward.”