As of 5 p.m. Monday,<\/a> Melissa was deemed the strongest hurricane on the planet this year, reaching 175 mph. Landfall is expected just before daylight Tuesday near Black River, in the southwest portion of the island. Cuba and Haiti could be next in the coming days.<\/p>\nMany in South Florida\u2019s large Jamaican diaspora, based largely in Broward County, are watching in anguish as Hurricane Melissa bears down on their homeland. For them, this isn\u2019t just another storm; it\u2019s an unfolding nightmare that threatens their loved ones just a 90-minute flight away.<\/p>\n
Meteorologists\u2019 forewarnings are chilling. They used words like \u201ccatastrophic,\u201d \u201clife-threatening\u201d and \u201chistoric hurricane.\u201d The commands heard again and again to Jamaicans are simple but haunting: \u201cPrepare for the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has told the island nation, \u201cevery corner of the island will feel the impact,\u201d the Miami Herald reported.<\/p>\n
Also being brutally tested by this storm will be Jamaica\u2019s infrastructure resilience, which has been a focus of Holness\u2019s administration. \u201cEvery road we rebuild and every housing project we approve must meet higher climate standards,\u201d he said during a press briefing in Kingston. \u201cOur goal is not only to recover faster after disasters, but to withstand them better.\u201d Let\u2019s hope he\u2019s right.<\/p>\n
For South Florida\u2019s Jamaican families stuck on the sidelines, dread is the operative word. Each update brings both clarity of the scope of the damage that could be unleashed and also helplessness for relatives. \u201cYou feel it twice,\u201d one Miramar resident said. \u201cYou feel safe \u2013 but you feel sick knowing they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across South Florida, Jamaican churches and community organizations have already sprung into action and are preparing to step in and help pick up the pieces. Full damage could take days to determine. And Melissa\u2019s slow, agonizing crawl means Jamaica faces a prolonged, multi-day siege of wind and rain. As of Monday afternoon, the storm sat less than 150 miles from Kingston, inching north at only 5 mph and gathering strength along the way.<\/p>\n
Forecasters warn that some parts of Jamaica could receive up to 40 inches of rain within four days, nearly two-thirds of Miami\u2019s annual rainfall. Hard to imagine such destruction. The risk for flash floods and landslides is expected, particularly in Jamaica\u2019s hilly interior, where steep slopes and fragile soil can give way without warning, according to news reports.<\/p>\n
With a storm surge predicted to climb 13 feet above ground level, coastal towns face a difficult next few days. If the devastation is as expected, vulnerable communities could face days or weeks of isolation as roads, power and communication lines collapse under the storm\u2019s assault.<\/p>\n
South Florida will have to step up.<\/p>\n
For now, flights have stopped, ports are closed and communications are beginning to fail. Jamaica is bracing for the kind of night that etches itself permanently into a nation\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n
The question now is how quickly and how fully the world can rally once the winds die down and Jamaica begins the long, painful work of recovery.<\/p>\n
Our hearts are with you, Jamaica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Floridians may have something to be thankful for this week: Hurricane Melissa, now looming and churning with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17997,28,30,29,12146,5097,807,17996],"class_list":["post-23420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-andrew-holness","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jamaica","tag-melissa","tag-south-florida","tag-south-floridians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}