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Jamaican Government Explains Rescue Operations Amid Cat 5 Hurricane Tragedy and destruction, Hurricane Melissa has already claimed at least seven lives across the region. Three people died in Jamaica while preparing for the storm, three more in Haiti, and one in the Dominican Republic. And that’s just the beginning. Hundreds of thousands are without power, and the Red Cross estimates that up to one-point-five million people could be affected. This is history in the making; Melissa is the first Category 5 hurricane to ever strike Jamaica directly. As the storm carved a path of devastation, the Jamaican government began rolling out rescue missions to reach those in need. Evan Thompson, Principal Director, Meteorological Service of Jamaica “Information has been coming into the command center. When they come in the heights of the storm, sometimes there is very little we can do in terms of search and rescue. You have heard minister echo that on many occasions in terms of persons moving early where they can because it is very difficult for our emergency first responders to get to people in the heights of the storm like some of the incidents that we have received. But there was one incident night before last night that we had information coming in we sent out a team to assist to move an elderly couple to the shelter. We got information where the fire brigade was doing search and rescue in Manderville as well. Minister spoke to another one where a firefighter got caught up as well. So once those information comes into the center where best as possible we can do those swift water quick search and rescue we get them done. There is that communication channel once we get that information all those are action but there are times when it has to be a whole because you just can’t put person out there. Helicopters can’t fly in this kind of weather. Coastguards can’t sail in this kind of weather. So we just have to accept that that’s how it goes and once there is clearance and we have to we go and do our search and rescue operations.” Dezmond Mckenzie, Minister of Local Government & Community Development, Jamaica “This government has been proactive in our planning. We have put the necessary things in place so that we are able to respond when the opportunity presents itself. I want to again commend the team that has been here for the last three days, three nights. sitting in the command center, gathering the data, getting the information. This is one of the worst experiences that we have ever encountered. We can go back to hurricane Charlie in 1951, we can go back to hurricane Gilbert in 1889, we can go to other hurricanes, Beryl last year. We’ve learned from the lessons of Beryl, based on the committee that was established by the prime minister to review our performance in Beryl, and we use some of what we learned, and we have instituted it this time around.”
