Maryland couples stranded in Jamaica as Hurricane Melissa batters island
Maryland residents stranded in Jamaica as Hurricane Melissa hits
Hurricane Melissa made a historic landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday afternoon. It's the strongest storm on record to hit the island nation. FOX 5 spoke with two Maryland residents who are stranded on the island after airports shut down on Saturday. Our Homa Bash reports.
WASHINGTON - Hurricane Melissa made a historic landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday afternoon. It's the strongest storm on record to hit the island nation.
FOX 5 spoke with two Maryland residents who are stranded on the island after airports shut down on Saturday.
What they're saying:
Marnell Smith and her husband landed in Jamaica last Tuesday from Waldorf, Maryland to celebrate 11 years of marriage. At first, their view from their 7th floor room at a resort in Montego Bay was ocean, pools and palm trees.
But a week later, on Tuesday morning, the couple faced a new view as they were evacuated from their room along with hundreds of other guests to the resort's ballroom turned emergency shelter.
"Because the roof is caving in," explained Smith.
Mats are laid out around the floor and a buffet is set up along the wall as people make do as best they can. Smith's original flight was scheduled to leave Sunday.
"I'm keeping my faith strong. I know that there are people in worse situations right now, I'm not starving, we do have shelter and we're safe," Smith said.
Big picture view:
Hurricane Melissa made landfall around 1 p.m. Eastern time near the southwest edge of the island with 185 mile per hour winds and torrential rainfall making roads impassable. Thousands of people are without power.
Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States, Antony Anderson, told FOX 5 that they started sending supplies and support staff in preparation last week.
"We don't have the luxury of time. We have activated all our emergency plans, pre-deployed supplies, pre-deployed people, we have pre-deployed road clearing assets but this is a huge event," Anderson said.
The embassy has launched a hotline for those in the U.S. who are trying to get in touch with family in Jamaica and are unable to reach them due to unstable telecommunication connections.
You can also email disasterresponse@jamaicaembassy.org.
"Jamaicans are a very resilient people, we're fighters," Anderson said. "Hopefully we can recover as quickly as possible."
Local perspective:
Shannon Jones got married on Sunday. Her wedding was planned a year ago, in a city about 20 miles from Montego Bay.
"Shingles are flying down, palm trees are literally on their sides and I'm walking through water in the room," Jones said over FaceTime on Tuesday afternoon.
She and her husband are from Baltimore, Maryland and brought about a hundred guests with them, all now hunkered down at the Grand Palladium resort.
"We were beachside so they moved us into a third floor room now, which I'm not sure if it's good or bad because I'm standing in water. So we're just here trying to remain hopeful," Jones said.
Both women said they still have to pay for their rooms at the resort, and to add insult to injury, Smith is a furloughed federal worker, currently not getting paychecks.
Anderson said they are working to get the international airport in Kingston re-opened to bring in supplies and aid by Thursday or Friday.
Right now, it is not clear when the airports will open back up for commercial flights.