DETROIT – Hurricane Melissa is close to making landfall on Jamaica as the strongest storm to hit the island in nearly 200 years.
The Category 5 hurricane has sustained wind speeds of 180 mph and is expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge of up to 13 feet across southern Jamaica.
Read: Hurricane Melissa nears max potential intensity that Earth can produce -- what that means
“There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” said Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness. “The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge.”
Detroiters Laura Senior and her husband, Lenton Senior, are in Kingston, Jamaica, unable to fly out after visiting the island to meet their one-year-old grandson. They had planned to leave Monday morning (Oct. 27), but are now riding out the monster hurricane in a condo building.
“They’ve been telling us we need water and to get to a safe place. We knew we were in a safe place already, but it’s been nerve-wracking, waiting day by day as the forecast keeps changing,” Laura Senior said. “We’re in a condo -- it has eight floors. We’re on the eighth floor. I don’t know if it’s safer to be up high or in the middle.”
“The only thing we’re concerned about is that when we’re ready to get to the airport, if the roads will be clear,” said Lenton Senior. ”That’s the only thing we’re concerned about.”
The uncertainty has made this a challenging time for the couple. But people are already thinking about how to help. Henry Montague, president of the Jamaican Association of Michigan, has been communicating with people in Jamaica and coordinating resources for those in need despite being based in Metro Detroit.
“So our resources is basically trying to organize people,” Montague said. “We’re not, you know, wealthy resource kind of way, but we have hands and we have people who can get motivated and get them energized to do whatever is needed, to assist in any way that’s needed back home.”