The hospitality industry, a cornerstone of the Jamaican economy, braced for Hurricane Melissa’s powerful hit, and Shari Munroe, the director at Aristo Kat Tours, did everything she could to protect her life’s work.
Munroe, 40, a breast cancer survivor, used to live in Miami-Dade County. After graduating from Emory University, she earned a master’s of business administration and a juris doctor from the University of Miami in Coral Gables.
“I live in Jamaica full-time. We live on the water, so we have a second home that we do an Airbnb at that’s on higher ground, so we have evacuated to there,” Munroe said on Tuesday from Great River, at the border of Hanover and Saint James.
The hurricane made landfall as a Category 5 at about 1 p.m. on Tuesday near New Hope. Munroe was riding out the storm with her 6-year-old son, her parents, her brother, and her brother’s girlfriend.
“Close to where my home is in Freeport, Montego Bay, that’s also where my boats are docked,” said Munroe, who also works in the luxury yacht rental sector.
Munroe said there is a harbor there that is usually safe for boats during hurricanes.
“A lot of boating companies and boat owners have put their boats there ... my captains are actually on the boats riding out the storm on the boats,” Munroe said.
As conditions worsened, Munroe said water was dripping from her ceiling. She has lost windows, and she was getting emotional because she had not been able to contact some relatives -- despite having a generator and a Starlink satellite.
By 5 p.m., the hurricane had weakened to a Category 4.
More on Tuesday’s hurricane coverage
- Tourists hunker down in hotels
- University professor in Kinsgton: ‘I have never experienced these gusts’
- Reporting from Montego Bay
- Local 10 News Weather Authority updates
- Here is how to help from South Florida
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