Floods pose a perennial problem to all Caribbean countries. Flood events disrupt communication networks, damage the agricultural sector, damage housing stock, thereby increasing the demands on the national budget to restore damaged or destroyed facilities. Since 1889 there have been 31 major flood events in the region; these are separate from flooding generated by hurricanes and storms.

Flood records for Jamaica indicate that between 1979 and 1996 the island has been affected by at least one major flood event every 1.5 years. These events directly affected 420,723 residents, destroyed infrastructure and livestock.