As Hurricane Melissa barrels toward Jamaica, a Delaware County, Pennsylvania, woman is holding onto hope and her heritage from her kitchen.

Lileith Brown owns Taste Jamaica Now, a takeout business she runs from her apartment in Media. The smells of jerk chicken, curry goat and oxtail remind her of the country she still calls home.

“Cooking means a lot to me,” Brown said. “It’s a part of me. I do it every day.”

But lately, her thoughts have been thousands of miles away. Brown’s heart is with her mother, siblings, nieces and nephews who are preparing for Melissa in Jamaica. They have a farm in Lillyfield, a community in St. Ann Parish on Jamaica’s north coast.

Forecasters predict Melissa could be the worst hurricane ever to hit the Caribbean island nation.

Ahead of the storm, Brown’s family members boarded up the windows of their house and brought the farm animals to a safe location. 

Jamaica has a history of destructive hurricanes.

“This storm is different because it’s a bigger hurricane,” she said. “We’ve had Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. I was 6 years old. That was huge. So if this is bigger than Gilbert, oh my gosh, it’s really scary.”

Brown and her husband, Marcus Brown, are glued to their phones for the latest updates. Family members who are hunkered down have been sending pictures and videos of the storm’s initial damage, including fallen banana trees, through WhatsApp.

“We was looking at the radar just not too long ago, and it’s cutting right through the middle of Jamaica,” Marcus Brown said. “The storm is really big, and I think it’s going to do a whole lot of damage.”

To cope with the stress, Lileith Brown turns to what she knows best: cooking.

“The hardest part is ensuring that they [my relatives] are fine,” she said. “But they have assured me that they’re good.”