Tourists take shelter as hurricane hits Jamaica

BRITISH tourists were locked down in their hotels yesterday as Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history, made landfall in Jamaica.

- GEORGE LITHGOW

As many as 8,000 British citizens are in the Caribbean country, with people ordered to stay inside to avoid the world’s strongest storm of the year so far.

Yesterday afternoon, the United States National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida, said Melissa was “one of the most powerful hurricane landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin” as it hit southwestern Jamaica, near the town of New Hope, with sustained winds of 185mph.

In a post on social media, the centre warned that it is an “extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation” and told those in the area not to leave their shelter as the eye of the storm passes over.

The Jamaican government has ordered evacuations from high risk areas, and all of the country’s airports were shut, while the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) urged British nationals in Jamaica to register their presence through the Government website to receive updates from the FCDO on the hurricane.

A Briton on holiday there said he had been ordered to stay in his hotel bathroom until the storm passes.