‘Going to be catastrophic’: Members of Winnipeg’s Jamaican community concerned over Category 5 hurricane

Winnipeggers with connections to Jamaica are worried as Hurricane Melissa makes landfall on the island nation. CTV’s Joseph Bernacki reports.

Members of Winnipeg’s Jamaican community are grappling with news of a powerful Category 5 hurricane that made landfall in the island nation on Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m really worried about them, because I’ve been through Hurricane Gilbert. We didn’t have any power for like three months on the island,” said Christine Pattison, owner of Miss Christine’s Kitchen in Winnipeg, who is from Jamaica.

Pattison said she survived Hurricane Gilbert as a teenager when it hit the country in 1988 as a Category 4 hurricane but said she “can’t imagine what’s going to happen with Melissa.”

The U.S. National Hurricane Center is describing the Hurricane Melissa as “one of the most powerful hurricane landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.”

The hurricane made landfall near the community of New Hope in southwestern Jamaica around 1 p.m. EDT with estimated maximum sustained winds of 295 km/h, according to the division of the U.S. National Weather Service.

“It’s going to be catastrophic, especially in the poor neighbourbood,” Pattison said on Tuesday afternoon. “Where I’m from (Kingston)… down by the waterfront, the homes are not that great of a structure. So, I’m really worried about what’s going to be happening.”

READ MORE: Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica as catastrophic Category 5 storm

Pattison said she has been in constant communication with her niece in Jamaica, reminding her that this is a very serious situation. She said the water surge from Hurricane Gilbert came within one block from where she lived.

“That was a Category 4. This is a Category 5. So, I’m constantly asking, ‘What’s going on?’” she said. “When Gilbert was going by, we were seeing roofs flying.”

“The last time I talked to (my niece), the house was leaking already from the rain... So my daughter and I, we convinced her to go to a shelter.”

She said she also has a 72-year-old sister in Jamaica, but her calls haven’t been going through.

‘It was very scary’: Survivor stresses seriousness of preparedness

Pattison is urging residents in Jamaica to take safety announcements very seriously after her own experience decades ago.

She said in 1988, many Jamaican residents didn’t believe the precautionary hurricane announcements, including herself, claiming that many storms often change directions and never arrive.

“And then all of a sudden we could see… this big dark cloud and a big storm coming, and everybody starts scattering, and then you just hear this big whistle,” she recalled.

“All we saw was water surging like little, tiny tsunamis coming from the ocean coming right up to where we live. It was very scary. We didn’t have anything planned. We didn’t have any food plans.”

She said the devastation at that time forced her to sleep on the streets for weeks because there was nowhere to go.

“So now, … I’m trying to explain to my niece that she has to be super careful because we take things too lightly, and this is not a joke.”

Pattison is also concerned that insufficient relief may cause people to loot to survive. “And that’s scary when you stop and think about it, because people have to eat,” she said.

Nadia Thompson, a member of the Jamaican Association of Manitoba, said she has an aunt and uncle living in Jamaica along with cousins. However, she said they reside in an area that is very susceptible to flooding and landslides.

“With this storm, it’s definitely going to get washed out, which limits them having communication and also transportation to and from to get the basic necessities,” she said.

Thompson said the infrastructure has been growing and improving in the country over the years but worries that the hurricane will inflict lots of damage that will require rebuilding.

“I think the (Jamaican) government has been really great at communicating, and the emergency response has been really getting everybody prepared, so it’s just a matter of listening.

“They’ve got to take those precautions seriously and do whatever they can to make sure that they’re safe.”

-With files from CTV’s Joseph Bernacki