On Tuesday, October 28th, Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica head-on as a category 5 storm. With sustained winds of 185 mph – tying for the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane along with the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935.
Stuck on-site were Clay Center residents, Doug and Teresa Erickson, on their seventh trip to Jamaica. They landed October 22nd and would leave the following Wednesday for a seven-day trip.
“This is the sixth time we’ve been around Halloween, and this is the first time we’ve had any trouble,” Teresa said.
They hunkered down in their resort with other stranded guests and ended up spending an extra six days before they could find a flight to Kansas City.
Though their resort at Ocho Rios was planned to get hit head-on – at one point Teresa was looking at a weather app when the blue dot, their location, aligned directly with Melissa’s eye – it shifted about 40 miles west before making landfall. While that was good at the time, she said, it also meant damage to Jamaica’s largest airport in Montego Bay, from where they were scheduled to leave.
On the north side of the country – Melissa coming from behind – the Ericksons compared their hurricane experience to a strong Kansas thunderstorm. They said other areas weren’t as lucky, including resort employees whose homes had been damaged.
“It’s a catch-22 for them, ‘Do I work and earn wages or do I go home and help rebuild and help my people in the neighborhood.’ It’s so hard for them.”
In the days leading up to Melissa, their resort held a series of meetings. First when they heard there was a tropical storm.
“They said we would be fine, and they would take good care of us,” she said.
Then Doug got sick – this is what Teresa called “stressor number one.”
About 24 hours after landing, on Thursday, he started showing signs of a severe virus, along with other guests. While they thought it might be food poisoning at first, Teresa and others ate the same foods.
By Friday, Teresa was out finding medicine and talking with the staff about the impending hurricane watch – stressor number two.
“I’m looking at flights and not finding anything,” she said. “Even if we had been able to get flights out he could not have traveled,” she said. Later that day, Doug went to the resort nurse and the Ericksons were moved into the resort’s main building so they wouldn’t have to walk outside to get to food.
Though the room was a little smaller, it came with a bathroom window, which they said was a blessing through days of inconsistent electricity.
“It would’ve been pitch black in there at times because the power was off and on.”
Over the next few days, the resort held more meetings, explaining protocol to the guests, while prepping the facility for harsh weather. That meant boarding up first-floor windows – at the north end of the island they weren’t expecting storm surge – moving the dining buffet indoors, throwing outdoor chairs in the pool, and parking a bus across an outdoor veranda to keep out flying debris.
They were also coached to stay indoors – especially as the eye passed over the island.
“They said it would hit then get still and that’s the most dangerous time because everyone thinks it’s over and it’s not,” Teresa said. “The backside will come through and for us to stay inside no matter what.”
Staff members stayed on-site, most of whom were seasoned pros at dealing with hurricanes.
“They were just very calm, reassuring, and kind. They didn’t act like they had to be there because we were there,” she said. “And most of them had family at home and they were there comforting us. The people there are amazing and so selfless. We couldn’t walk anywhere without someone asking how we were.”
Tuesday the storm hit, which included high winds, rains, and “angry” waves that toppled docks in Ocho Rios. Doug said there was a bell dinging in a pattern with the winds.
However, they soon realized they wouldn’t make their return flight with damage to the Montego Bay airport and infrastructure.
Thus brought stressor number three – the dilemma of getting home.
For the next six days they took meals and spent evenings with other couples at the resort – one from Canada, Nex Mexico, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the food was just as good as it was pre-hurricane.
“People were leaving a little at a time,” Doug said. “But there was about five or six couples we’d sit with and got to know them.”
Wednesday there was no news, as the resort’s main office was in Montego Bay, which had sustained damage. Thursday an employee – aptly named Melissa – began a days-long venture to find them flights.
“At one point she had a phone at each ear, and she was talking to two different people at the same time,” Teresa said. “Later we found out she was there helping us on her day off.”
Plans changed over and over again, them believing they were leaving on Friday, then Sunday, then Saturday, while they finally got tickets for Tuesday November 4th – a full six days after their planned departure.
Despite the stressors and the hassle, both said they’d go back, and will go back sooner rather than later.
“Once our flights were booked we could actually have a vacation,” she laughed. “There wasn’t much to do; a lot of the amenities were nonexistent, but we had food, we had alcohol, and we had shelter. Plus there was a lot of reassurance from the people who were there.”
Pictures: Top: Doug and Teresa Erickson with a resort employee, Melissa (center) who spent days trying to find them a flight home.
Next: Teresa’s phone app showing the eye of Hurricane Melissa heading straight toward them – three days later the storm shifted about 40 miles west from their Ocho Rios location. Followed by outdoor furniture stored in the pool to keep it safe.
Left: First-floor windows were boarded up to add safety to the structure’s interior and keep out water or rain. Because the resort was located on the northern part of the island, it was not hit with storm surge.
