Hoosiers Hunker Down for Hurricane Melissa
MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA—An Indianapolis resident’s birthday vacation has turned into a perilous lockdown as Hurricane Melissa, a rare and powerful Category 5 storm, bears down on the island of Jamaica.
Sean Tucker, who arrived in Montego Bay last Wednesday for a dual birthday celebration with about 20 others, is now confined to his resort room, sheltering from the most powerful storm in the island’s recorded history.
As of Tuesday morning, Hurricane Melissa has been confirmed as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Category: Category 5 (Maximum sustained winds exceeding 157 mph)
Expected Landfall: Forecasters expect Melissa to make landfall on Jamaica early Tuesday morning and linger over the island due to its slow movement. The storm’s path is projected to slice diagonally across the island, bringing catastrophic flooding, landslides, and life-threatening storm surge.
The extreme intensity and slow pace of the storm have prompted unprecedented warnings from the National Hurricane Center, with the Jamaican Prime Minister cautioning that “no infrastructure in the region can withstand a Category 5.”
Tucker and his large party were originally scheduled to fly home to Indianapolis today, Tuesday, but their flight cancellations on Saturday were the first sign that their plans had drastically changed.
“We came in with, you know, good spirits. Everything was great. And here we are,” Tucker told reporters. “All of a sudden, we started getting flight cancellation notices, and that’s when we knew, like, things had changed.”
The group is currently at the Riu Reggae resort in Montego Bay, under a full lockdown that began Monday night and is not expected to be lifted until sometime on Wednesday. Tucker, who is staying on the highest of the resort’s three levels, described the unnerving preparations.
“We kind of got to take their own protocol and put our own tables and stuff in front of our windows just to protect us from the glass shattering if it does,” he explained.
Having lived through a Category 3 hurricane in Miami years ago, Tucker admits the current situation is completely new and nerve-wracking.
“I will say that I don’t all the way fully feel prepared for what’s coming,” he confessed. “You hear people saying how much it can tear up this island because literally the hurricane is bigger than this island. I’m on edge. My nerves are there. Very nervous because you just don’t know the power that it’s getting ready to have once it makes landfall completely.”
His final message to the Indianapolis community back home was a simple request: “I would love for everybody just to keep us in their prayers. Keep us lifted and praying for our safety while we’re here and praying that we’re able to make it back home.
