{"id":25440,"date":"2025-10-29T01:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T01:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/25440\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T01:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T01:27:07","slug":"north-texans-with-ties-to-jamaica-anxiously-monitor-hurricane-melissa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/25440\/","title":{"rendered":"North Texans with ties to Jamaica anxiously monitor Hurricane Melissa"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Texans watch Hurricane Melissa’s devastation from afar worried for family members and friends.<\/p>\n

ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 At Jamaica Gates Caribbean Cuisine<\/a>, Errol Byles and his nephew serve up more than just authentic island flavors. Byles calls the restaurant a gateway to the Jamaican experience \u2014 and to the place where he grew up.<\/p>\n

Now, his family there is bracing for the impact of Hurricane Melissa<\/a>, boarding up windows and blocking in cars, not knowing if that will be enough.<\/p>\n

“It’s tough when you think about what everyone may be going through. The uncertainty behind it,” Byles said.<\/p>\n

Category 5 Hurricane Melissa made landfall on Tuesday. Byles knows the slow-moving storm will be devastating.<\/p>\n

“Property and things can be replaced, lives can’t,” he said. “That’s the focus we keep telling them.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The waiting is the hardest part for fellow North Texan Raniah White as well.<\/p>\n

“For us, we’re having a hard time only because of the fact there’s nothing we can really do,” White said.<\/p>\n

Her two sisters and great uncle were on a trip to Jamaica, supposed to head back days before the hurricane hit. But they said the airport closed down. They’re stuck in a resort in Montego Bay, barricading themselves inside their room after losing power some time ago.<\/p>\n

“We can hear things blowing around and hitting the building and everything,” said Aaliceya White.<\/p>\n

The group is using whatever they can find \u2014 box springs, chairs \u2014 to fortify their room. They’re watching the storm right outside their window, worried but trying to keep their spirits high.<\/p>\n

“We’re making DIY life vests,” said Destiny White.<\/p>\n

They’ve started an online fundraiser<\/a> to try and get by while they’re stuck on the island.<\/p>\n

Back in Arlington, Byles agrees it’s the only thing to do at his restaurant, too.<\/p>\n

“There’s a difference in first-world problems and third-world problems,” Byles said. “Third-world problem is what we’re experiencing in Jamaica right now.”<\/p>\n

Byles is asking people to drop off donations at the restaurant. He’s looking for things like canned food, hygiene products and basic necessities he knows his community will need when the storm passes.<\/p>\n

Because even 1,600 miles away, “we stay connected by just having our restaurant here to just know that this is something that bonds us together,” Byles said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Texans watch Hurricane Melissa’s devastation from afar worried for family members and friends. ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-25440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}