Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\nRicketts, who works as a nanny, told her employer in Montego Bay that she was living in what used to be her open-air porch in Montpelier, a hillside village about six miles from Montego Bay.<\/p>\n
Ricketts said the hurricane gutted the home she shares with her cousin. She said they were wet and couldn\u2019t sleep while the force of the winds struck. Mud and water covered everything they owned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen everything calmed down, people started looking for each other with flashlights,\u201d Ricketts told her employer, Shari Munroe, adding that she was worried about a retired senior who lost everything.<\/p>\n
Jamaican ministers announced on Monday afternoon that the official death toll of the Category 5 hurricane that made landfall on Oct. 28 was at 32 and increasing as accessibility improved. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am living on my veranda. I cook there. I sleep there and try to clean the rest … the best I can, but it\u2019s not completely clean — not even halfway — but I am trying,\u201d Ricketts told Munroe. <\/p>\n
Cross, who works as a housekeeper, is a mother of seven. She had been with her family in the hard-hit St. Elizabeth parish when she arrived at work, \u201cgot into the doorway\u201d and \u201ccollapsed with relief and grief,\u201d according to Munroe. <\/p>\n
Cross told Munroe the hurricane brought in \u201cdirty, muddy water\u201d and flooded everything in their home and neighborhood. She said she and others had to get into trucks to get to Montego Bay. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is gone,\u201d Cross told Munroe. <\/p>\n
Whatever was left after the storm was in debris fires. Without power or running water, Ricketts and Cross said children and adults needed basics such as clothes, shoes, food, and batteries.<\/p>\n
Watch some of Munroe\u2019s interview with Ricketts <\/p>\n
Jamaican Leniecia Ricketts describes Hurricane Melissa’s destruction <\/p>\n
Watch some of Munroe\u2019s interview with Cross<\/p>\n
Jamaican Marva Cross talks about Hurricane Melissa’s aftermath <\/p>\n
Interactive map<\/p>\n
More on hurricane coverage<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica \u2014 Leniecia \u201cLen\u201d Ricketts and Marva Cross returned to work at a family home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-272314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}