Copyright Newsweek
Hannah Grubbs, the influencer who flew to Jamaica during Hurricane Melissa and said it was “messing with” her vacation, has removed videos about the trip from her TikTok account. Newsweek has contacted Grubbs for content via email. The Context Hurricane Melissa is the most powerful storm of the 2025 Atlantic season. After making landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, Melissa left a trail of devastation and flooding. Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s education minister, said that 77 percent of the island was still without power on Wednesday. In Haiti, at least 40 have died in the storm’s wake, and seven people were confirmed dead across the Caribbean during storm preparations. Melissa has since weakened to a Category 3 hurricane and continues to move north, triggering widespread flooding and emergency declarations across the Caribbean. What To Know On October 24, Grubbs began sharing TikTok videos about her trip. Her first video showed her and a friend walking through an airport, with a text overlay that said, “Us on our way to Jamaica during a hurricane.” Once she landed on the island, Grubbs continued to share content that referenced the storm. On Sunday, she posted a video in which she was being served drinks by a bartender. She wrote, “Pretending there’s not a category 5 hurricane about to hit Jamaica.” Grubbs went on to share clips of the weather worsening and ultimately shared a clip of her overlooking the balcony of her hotel room. The text overlay said, “Hurricane Melissa out here messing with my vacation.” The backlash to the videos came quick. The Instagram account @daadisnacks made a video about Grubbs’ TikTok videos captioned, “How can i make a category 5 hurricane about me.” As of press time, that video had been viewed 4.8 million times. Grubbs’ comment sections on Instagram and TikTok have been flooded with similar criticism. As of reporting, Grubbs had deleted all the videos from her TikTok. One video, where a bartender is serving her drinks and she wrote that she was pretending there was no hurricane, is available to view on Snapchat. It has been viewed over 800,000 times. Grubbs has continued to share updates on her Snapchat. She recently shared one post with a text overlay that said, “Most of the island is without cell service and electricity, so communication is very limited.” In a further Snapchat story, she shared an image of herself and wrote, “We will be here for a while.” Who Is Hannah Grubbs? Grubbs is a social media content creator who has over 150,000 followers on TikTok and over 30,000 followers on Instagram. She shares travel-related content and images of herself. What People Are Saying Instagram user @daadisnacks said in a video: “Hannah here is an influencer who has been using a natural disaster as an opportunity to farm content.” Tess Tickles, a social media user on Snapchat, commented on Grubbs’ video: “It’s these videos that get used to the future docs about how people were dumb and didn’t prepare for a terrible disaster they were warned about.” Instagram user @codyvois commented on Grubbs’ most recent Instagram video: “Trying to be an influencer so hard but horrible decision making. The youth is watching. Do better.” What Happens Next Despite deleting the videos on her TikTok, Grubbs continues to share updates on her Snapchat.
