{"id":4133,"date":"2025-10-29T01:20:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/jamaicans-in-winnipeg-brace-for-worst-as-hurricane-melissa-hits-island\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T01:20:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:20:35","slug":"jamaicans-in-winnipeg-brace-for-worst-as-hurricane-melissa-hits-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/jamaicans-in-winnipeg-brace-for-worst-as-hurricane-melissa-hits-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamaicans in Winnipeg brace for worst as Hurricane Melissa hits island"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>ManitobaMembers of Winnipeg\u2019s Jamaican community were hoping for the best but bracing for the worst, as a hurricane that could bring massive devastation touched down on the island nation on Tuesday. Storm touched down in Jamaica as a Category 5 on TuesdayCBC  \u00b7 Posted: Oct 28, 2025 10:21 PM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesKedian Nelson and her husband, Anthony Nelson, own the Caribbean Party Restaurant in Winnipeg. Both originally from Jamaica and have family and friends living there. (Jeff Stapleton\/CBC)Members of Winnipeg\u2019s Jamaican community were hoping for the best but bracing for the worst, as a hurricane that could bring massive devastation touched down on the island nation on Tuesday.\u201cJamaicans are resilient, they\u2019ve come out of a lot of things, but this one seems like it\u2019s going to be a really bad storm,\u201d said Winnipegger Kedian Nelson.\u201dI\u2019m really, really worried for the people.\u201dKedian and her husband, Anthony Nelson, own the Caribbean Party Restaurant in Winnipeg and are both originally from Jamaica. Both have family and friends living there who now face whatever Hurricane Melissa might bring.The storm made landfall on Jamaica\u2019s southwestern coast as a Category 5 storm shortly after noon CT, and has been confirmed to be the strongest to hit the island since record-keeping began 174 years ago. Many residents are now sheltering in place despite government orders to evacuate, and both Kedian and Anthony Nelson said they are now hoping for everyone\u2019s safety as the storm barrels through.Anthony says he got a message from his sister who lives in Jamaica on Tuesday, letting him know that her house was already flooded from the storm.\u201cWe\u2019re very scared, especially for my sister, because everybody is wondering what\u2019s going to happen. Is your house going to get destroyed? And what can you recuperate?\u201d he said.\u201cEven if you survive and you don\u2019t get damage, what about your friends and your neighbours?\u201dBoth Kedian and Anthony say the last time they visited their home country, they saw signs of  progress in terms of development and infrastructure. They\u2019re hoping the storm doesn\u2019t wipe out that progress.\u201cThe country was basically going in the right direction,\u201d Kedian said. \u201cYou want a fast rebuild,\u201d she said, but with the damage the storm is expected to bring, \u201cI don\u2019t think a rebuild is going to be quick.\u201dAnthony said although he worries about buildings and infrastructure, nothing is more important to him than people simply surviving the storm.\u201cI\u2019m just praying at this point that there\u2019s no more loss of life,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can always rebuild if we have to rebuild. We\u2019re resilient enough to rebuild.\u201d\u2018We have a responsibility to really step up\u2019Winnipegger Robert Collins is currently in the St. Andrew Parish area of Jamaica, caring for his sick sister and elderly mother. He told CBC Up To Speed\u2019s Faith Fundal on Tuesday he was busy boarding up windows at the house where he\u2019s staying.WATCH |  Jamaicans in Winnipeg worry for loved ones as hurricane hits:Winnipeggers worry for loved ones in Jamaica as Hurricane Melissa landsHurricane Melissa, the strongest to hit Jamaica in more than 170 years of record-keeping, made landfall Tuesday afternoon. As those on the island face the storm, Jamaicans in Winnipeg are trying to make sure their loved ones are OK.\u201dIt\u2019s really bad. We\u2019ve sustained some damage to the house now. You can hear outside banging, it\u2019s an awning pipe that is swinging wildly that was anchored up, but the wind managed to get under it.\u201cIt\u2019s quite like a scene out of Final Destination.\u201dBut he said he is optimistic that Jamaicans will come out of the storm ready and able to rebuild.\u201dJamaica has a track record of resilience,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have faced tremendous hurdles and storms before and we have always bounced back, and I do hope and pray that we are able to bounce back as quickly as possible.\u201dShemar Barnes, the president of the Jamaican Association of Manitoba, says he hopes Manitobans consider donating to relief efforts that will begin once the storm moves on, because the need will be great.Shemar Barnes, the president of the Jamaican Association of Manitoba, says he hopes Manitobans consider donating to the relief efforts that will begin once Hurricane Melissa moves on. (Jeff Stapleton\/CBC)\u201dThere are over 6,000 people in shelters, and they are anticipating that that number is going to climb drastically by tonight,\u201d Barnes said Tuesday.There will be a need for food, sanitary items, clothing and infant-care items, he said, encouraging people to help where they can.\u201dWe are a community no matter where we are, so we always look out for each other, and right now the country is facing a  disastrous storm that we won\u2019t know the true impact of until the next coming days,\u201d said Barnes. \u201cSo we have a responsibility to really step up, and to help out our brother and sister and those back home.\u201dWith files from Felisha Adam<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ManitobaMembers of Winnipeg\u2019s Jamaican community were hoping for the best but bracing for the worst, as a hurricane that could bring massive devastation touched down on the island nation on Tuesday. Storm touched down in Jamaica as a Category 5 on TuesdayCBC \u00b7 Posted: Oct 28, 2025 10:21 PM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,127,1],"tags":[116,126],"class_list":["post-4133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-manitoba","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-manitoba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}