A Massachusetts family vacationing in Jamaica is bracing for Hurricane Melissa to make landfall on the island.
The Category 5 hurricane is expected to reach Jamaica on Tuesday.
Leilani Perez, of Boston’s Hyde Park, is there with her mom and aunt for a birthday trip.
Perez said pools and restaurants are closed, and so are the airports are closed. Although their departure flight is still scheduled for this Thursday.
“It’s a little interesting because now that I’m actually living it, I can understand what others have experienced during hurricanes. And kind of how the preparations go, what are the safety measures?” said Perez.
The hurricane could bring extensive damage, catastrophic flooding, and landslides with up to 40 inches of rain.
On Monday morning, Perez said, “Right now, it’s just a little windy. But it’s not raining or anything. So it really just depends on the weather. Once the weather actually starts to come in, then that’s when we’ll evacuate, but right now we’re just kind of lying low, staying in our rooms, keeping up water supply, making sure we’re eating.”
Mandatory evacuations are underway in at least seven flood-prone communities in Jamaica.
The storm has moved slowly over areas – killing at least three people in Haiti and at least one person in the Dominican Republic.
Not only will wind and rain fall be an issue in Jamaica, but Hurricane Melissa may cause life-threatening storm surge on the coast, peaking around 13 feet.
“It’s kind of just a bunch of emotions and thoughts bottled up, trying to figure out how am I really going to deal with this when it gets to that point when we’re all enclosed, sheltered in the same space, and the storm is literally going by us,” said Perez.
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