Melissa could be the worst hurricane Jamaica has experienced since recordkeeping began — but some residents on the Caribbean island say they will believe it when they see it.
The country’s top officials have urged people on the island of 2.8 million to cooperate with evacuation orders, yet some are staying put, even as torrential rains and battering winds begin.
“Jamaicans on the whole aren’t the type of people who would just get up and leave their home,” said Jamal Peters, a 34-year-old front manager at a hotel in Port Royal.
“They’d prefer to stay. And if a window blows out or something like that they can be there.”
Peters took up his post last month, and so far preparations at the 63-room waterfront hotel have involved moving guests to higher floors, battening down wherever possible, trimming trees and clearing out boats.
“We are still bracing for impact,” he told AFP. “But for the most part, because this is not our first hurricane, Jamaicans would have been prepared for what’s to come.”
The monster top-level Category 5 storm was churning towards Jamaica with maximum 175-mile (280-kilometer) winds as of Monday evening and poised to dump several feet of rainfall that could cause deadly flooding.
Warnings that it could be worse than 1988’s Hurricane Gilbert — which left over 40 dead in Jamaica and killed hundreds more across the Caribbean and Mexico — triggered fear in some residents.
But others said it was business as usual.
“Evacuate? No, no. We’re not going to do that,” Roy Brown, a plumber and tiler, said.
“Even if it’s Category 6, I am not moving. I don’t believe I can run from death. So whenever the Father is ready for me. I know he can take me, so I’m not running.”
Brown told AFP that allegations of poor conditions at government-run shelters meant his views were widespread.
Jennifer Ramdial, a fisherwoman who said she has resided in the community for 30 years, cited the same reason for her defiance.
“I just don’t want to leave,” she added.
But Shelly-Ann McCalla, shelter manager at the Morant Bay Primary School, said people have been streaming into the location since Thursday, a day after Jamaica was placed under a tropical storm warning.
However, she said the occupancy level so far is less than the 86 who sought shelter at the location ahead of Hurricane Beryl last year.
“A lot of people don’t want to come beacuse they say ‘storm not coming,'” added said.
– ‘Be with my family’ –
Jamaica’s own Usain Bolt, the Olympian sprinter, meanwhile was reposting government emergency information and disaster preparedness tips to his 4.6 million X followers.
The preparations weren’t limited to human residents: zoos were also securing their animals, doing preparatory feeds and checks.
“Although we’re staring down the loaded barrel of this nasty [Category 5], we will see you all on the other side,” posted Joey Brown of Hope Zoo on Facebook.
Ishack Wilmot, 42, was sheltering with his family in Kingston, Jamaica’s capital.
“Our family is pretty used to weathering out storms,” he told AFP.
The surf camp hospitality manager and chef said preparations included packing away surfboards at work and collating important documents, along with stockpiling food and water.
“And then, you know, us as surfers — as soon as we did our basic preparations, we all went surfing,” he said.
But now, Wilmot said his normal ocean views had been grayed out by the incoming storm.
“We are currently experiencing a torrential downpour,” he said Monday evening. “It’s foggy out on the sea.”
And ultimately, “if anything does happen and it does become like the worst-case scenario,” he said, “I’d prefer to be with my family.”
bur-mdo/jgc
