Hey Twitter fam. Making an urgent appeal. Currently in the hospital and in desperate need for blood. I'm seeking anyone who can donate as it's urgent. Anyone can donate from anywhere in the island you just let them know who you're donating for. Jody Anderson Mandeville Regional
#Jamaicans! Mawgaman is back! Golfview Hotel in Mandeville is hosting my "Fireside Chat" 6 pm TOMORROW (Tuesday). I'll be talking #Hurricane#MELISSA—what happened & what we learned. I'll show an intense 7-min video, & I'll take questions, too. Excited to meet y'all. 👊
Jamaicans! Mawgaman is coming to town. Awesome Golfview Hotel in Mandeville is hosting "Fireside Chat" 6 pm Tue 27 January. I—along with community leaders—will be talking #Hurricane#MELISSA—what happened, what we learned, & the way forward. Please come! I'd love to meet y'all.
Finally, my video: Hurricane MELISSA at Ground Zero.
#MELISSA was the most epic chase of my career—and the most intense #hurricane I’ve witnessed. So, I gave it the grand, full-length documentary treatment. I was on the island of #Jamaica for 10 days, and this video brings you with me through that whole odyssey—getting to the island, slowly closing in on my prey, nailing the core of this nuclear-grade Category 5, and then many days living in the aftermath. Instead of just doing highlights, I wanted to make something complete—something that has chase strategy (for chaserdudes), minute-by-minute footage of the storm’s progress (for meteorologists to analyze), high-octane eyewall footage (for adrenaline junkies), survivors’ tales (for those who want the personal angle), and extensive documentation of the aftermath in multiple towns (for those interested in societal impacts).
But, most of all, I hope this video serve as a useful historical document for Jamaicans—an up-close and detailed record of this truly cataclysmic event in their nation’s history.
Regarding MELISSA’s winds… I feel convinced these are the highest winds I’ve personally witnessed or filmed—or heard. (The screaming sound as the storm peaked was harsh and painful, driving the people with me to hold their ears.) Big shoutout to the tall, hearty palm in front of the hotel. It served as a wind meter, showing its relative speed and direction. Without that tree, the eyewall footage would have just looked like dense clouds blowing past an airplane window. That tree shows the POWER—the way it bends in the really big, scary gusts. Eventually, though, things get so crazy you can’t even see the tree—it just disappears into the screaming white void. These winds were truly fierce. They even took down concrete buildings—obliterating the entire second floor of the concrete building across the street from my hotel. God knows what velocities some of those especially screamy gusts reached—but I’m grateful I was in a solid structure with thick walls.
So… If you want to come on a tough chase with a veteran chaserdude, sit back and enjoy this video from the beginning. If you just want to see the storm, start at Chapter 4: The Approach. And if you want to cut straight to the chocolate cake without eating your dinner (like a child), go right to Chapter 5: The Cataclysm. That’s the eyewall.
There you have it. Video link in the comments!
🚨 @CheyDeAvapno Has internet access available in Bethel Town near the community center via starlink, they can come here to reach out to their families.
Please Share 🚨
BIG HELP COMING FOR JAMAICA! 🇯🇲 Deploying to another country is a whole different animal, but the @Unitedcajunnavy will always be the first shrimp boots on the ground! 🫡💪 https://t.co/6DWzadMq8o
Man. #Hurricane#MELISSA. Incredible power. Perhaps the mightiest hurricane of the 83 I've witnessed.
My location (Crawford, a tiny beach town in St. Elizabeth Parish #Jamaica) took the full force of the inner right eyewall and may have seen the peak winds in this historic, record-smashing hurricane.
First pic: as it started to get scary. Bone-rattling gusts were making roofs explode into clouds of lethal confetti. The grand palm tree out front was starting to bend obscenely—in a way I found unnatural.
Second pic: after we bolted the door shut because it was getting too dangerous even to watch the storm. (I'd randomly ended up in the hotel's kitchen with a local family.)
The hurricane's inner eyewall was a screaming white void. All I could see through the cracks in the shutters was the color white—accompanied by a constant, ear-splitting scream that actually caused pain. (Notice the woman in the pic holding her ears.) The scream occasionally got higher and angrier, and those extra-screechy screams made my eardrums pulse. Meanwhile, water was forcing in through every crack—under the floor and between the window slats.
I remember shuddering at the thought of what was happening to the town—what this screaming white void was doing to people, homes, communities.
My fears were well-founded. The impact in this part of coastal St. Elizabeth Parish is catastrophic. Wooden structures were completely mowed down and in some cases swept from their foundations. Some concrete structures collapsed. The well-built ones—like my hotel—survived, but even they had major roof, window, and door damage. The landscape has been stripped bare—the trees just sticks. The roads are blocked with rubble and utility poles.
Nearby Black River—a unique old historical town right on the water—was smashed beyond recognition: historical sites destroyed, main streets filled with rubble, the town market twisted like a pretzel, even the regional hospital destroyed.
It's a good thing I wasn't in my hotel room during the storm because one of the windows blew out, showering the bed with glass and wood. The hotel lost most of its roof, and several third-story rooms were smashed open. But in the lower flooors, those grand old concrete walls protected us. And so far I'm aware of only two deaths in Crawford—a fellow who had a heart attack at the school next door (his body was still in his car and unclaimed the next morning, a sad and disturbing sight), and a woman who drowned in the storm surge in Gallon Beach. While walking down the devastated streets of Black River, I ran into the Jamaican Member of Parliament for this region, @floydgreenja. He's a great dude and I appreciate that he already has a gameplan for turning this catastrophe into an opportunity—to build this region back better. And I vowed on the spot that I'm going to make it my mission to spread awareness of this catastrophe and get that aid flowing in. I'll be talking about MELISSA a lot over the coming months—because it is both a fascinating meteorological event and a human disaster that demands an international response. (And I swear an epic video is coming out of this.)
This footage from inside the eye of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa might be the most jaw-dropping video ever captured of a hurricane’s eye, showcasing the infamous “stadium effect."
@KellyKatharin I just renewed my wife's vehicle and mine, it was very seamless, entire process took about 8 minutes (5 minutes for the first one as I was treading carefully)