Copyright The New York Times
Alicia Rampy and four family members were celebrating her grandson’s seventh birthday at Beaches Negril, an all-inclusive Sandals resort on Jamaica’s west coast, when Hurricane Melissa scrambled their plans. As airports closed and airlines canceled flights over the weekend, Ms. Rampy, 54, a travel adviser from Fort Worth, realized they would not be flying home on Tuesday and would instead have to hunker down at their hotel and ride out the most powerful hurricane ever to hit Jamaica. “I understood the gravity of the situation,” she said. On Monday afternoon, the sky became increasingly overcast, and a few light showers signaled what was to come. After dinner that night, staff members encouraged guests to take food from the buffet back to their rooms just in case the staff couldn’t reach them the next day. The storm was forecast to make landfall either later that night or the next day. As the next morning dawned and the worst winds and rains still had not arrived, some of the 130 staff members who had volunteered to ride out the storm with the guests delivered breakfast to each door, including eggs, bacon, French toast, waffles and orange juice — as the rain began to pelt sideways. Ms. Rampy and her family had adjoining rooms that faced the beach beyond a water park and a playground, giving them a front-row seat as the hurricane approached. The electricity flickered, Ms. Rampy said, but because the resort had a generator, they lost power for a total of only five to 10 seconds. In one room, they took a mattress off a trundle bed, laid it against a window and bolstered it with a bed frame. Ms. Rampy said her grandson had built a fort, where he watched a movie on a tablet as the storm arrived. The rest of the family followed the Weather Channel, read books, took naps and played cards while keeping an eye on the storm through the unblocked windows in the adjoining room. Internet service went out at around 1:30 p.m., during the worst of the storm. Branches were ripped off trees, palm trees bent over in the ferocious winds and rain continued to pour down. But with the room’s covered balcony blocking much of the wind, “we didn’t feel the imminent danger,” Ms. Rampy said. She was used to tornadoes back home in Texas, she added, but this was different. “While I think a tornado can do probably more damage, it’s very quick,” she said. “This was sustained for hours and hours of rain like you’ve never seen.” After the worst of the storm had passed, she said, staff members brought meat, fish, salads, potatoes, and rice and peas for dinner. “You never feel more like an entitled American as when you’re in a resort and you know that the people that are there caring for you are possibly losing their homes or they don’t know how their family is,” Ms. Rampy said. “And yet they’ve got on raincoats bringing you steak and chicken and fish for dinner.” By 8:30 the next morning, guests and workers alike were outside picking up fallen branches and clearing debris. By about 10 a.m., one of the resort’s pools was open again, and guests were swimming. “It was almost like business as usual, except there are trees in hot tubs,” Ms. Rampy said. The hurricane devastated parts of Jamaica, flooding streets, tearing off roofs and flattening buildings, particularly along its southwestern coast. Officials are still trying to assess the death toll. No guests or staff members were injured at any of Sandals’ eight resorts across Jamaica during the storm, Sandals said in a statement. The company is raising money for relief efforts. On Wednesday, Ms. Rampy said, she finally broke down and allowed herself to feel all the fear and apprehension she had held back during the storm. “I very much understood that a Category 5 hurricane making landfall while we were on a resort on the beach could be catastrophic,” she said. “I cannot tell you enough about the resilience, the heart, the compassion, the care and the concern and the love that the Jamaican people have,” she said. “I will never stop coming to Jamaica.” Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
