Calgary’s Jamaican community supporting family, friends as country braces for Hurricane Melissa

Many from Calgary's Jamaican community are holding out hope and gathering support for loved ones back home as Hurricane Melissa rages.

The staff at Krazy Jerk Jamaican Restaurant in Calgary are holding out hope for some good news as Hurricane Melissa has made landfall in Jamaica.

“We’re all sad just to hear what’s going on. This is going to be the hardest hit that they’ve seen since Hurricane Gilbert,” said operations manager Kemol Gordon.

“I’m being optimistic. I’m being positive about everything that’s going on. I’m standing beside my mom, who’s currently there, my siblings who are still back home, making sure that I can hear from them.

“I’m making sure that I can support them in any way that I possibly can, and just making sure that I’m the the beacon of hope for them right now.”

Gordon says he was just in Jamaica two weeks ago, and the weather was starting to turn as many days were filled with rain.

“They’re sad,” he said of his family.

“(I’m) making sure that I bring that positive energy, making sure that they know that at the end of the day, everything is going to be alright.”

Krazy Jerk serves bold Jamaican dishes like jerk chicken, oxtail and curry goat.

Gordon says restaurant staff plan to support hurricane relief efforts.

“It’s our obligation to make sure that we support the rebuilding of Jamaica and as one of our initiatives, for the month of November, we will be donating five per cent of our sales,” said Gordon.

“We’ll also be setting up a donation box over there in the corner where we can get community members, where we can get customers to donate, whether this is monetary contributions, whether this is clothing or perishable items (or) whatever.

“We’re not saying no to anything.”

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the “extremely dangerous” hurricane was crossing western Jamaica with “catastrophic winds, flash flooding and storm surge.”

As of 12 p.m., the hurricane was about 35 kilometres southwest of Montego Bay and showing maximum sustained winds of 270 km/h.

As of 2 p.m., the storm remained “extremely dangerous” as it made its way across northwestern Jamaica.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Melissa is expected to hit Cuba Tuesday night before reaching the Bahamas on Wednesday.

The Jamaican Canadian Association of Alberta (JCAA) says these past few days have been troubling.

“It’s been sleepless nights for some of us because we are constantly in contact with members of our families in Jamaica,” said president Marva Ferguson.

“At this moment, the airports are now closed. We have to maintain contact with friends and family.”

Ferguson says the JCAA will hold an event on Saturday, initially scheduled months ago as the “One in a Million You Sunset” dance.

It will now serve a dual purpose at the JCAA building located at 3208 8th Ave. N.E., Unit 611.

“We’ve had to pivot,” said Ferguson.

“We’ve had to make some changes and to add the fundraising event for hurricane relief.”

WestJet says it continues to respond to severe weather near Jamaica, Cuba and other Caribbean travel destinations “by cancelling select flights and enabling flexible travel policies for affected routes.”

“We apologize for any disruption caused to our guests’ travel plans as a result of this developing situation, and we look forward to safely resuming operations to get our guests on their way once the weather system has passed,” read a statement.

The company asks all guests to check the status of their flights before leaving for the airport.

WestJet flights 2226 and 2227 were cancelled Tuesday to and from Montego Bay due to the hurricane.