WITNESS:
00:01:16
Pretty gusty. Pretty windy.
JASON ALLEN:
00:01:18
Jamaica's shoreline is being overwhelmed with winds gusting more than 60 miles per hour, dangerous flooding and storm surge projected up to 13 feet as Hurricane Melissa thrashes the island. Inside the storm Monday, hurricane hunters from NOAA were forced to abort their data-collecting mission because of severe turbulence. This video shows what crews were able to capture before the scrapped flight. On the ground, mandatory evacuations forced hundreds into shelters. The roughly one million residents of Jamaica's capital, Kingston, are still on the outskirts of Hurricane Melissa's reach. We're all battened down and locked up. The thing that concerns us the most, it's mostly just the wind and the rain.
JASON ALLEN:
00:01:57
Those dangerous conditions closed Jamaica's airports when Melissa was approaching, leaving many vacationers stranded until the historic storm passes through the Caribbean. We're trying to be as prepared as we can.
JASON ALLEN:
00:02:08
Bridget and Wayne Todd are in Jamaica on their honeymoon. The North Carolina couple has experienced hurricanes in the US before, but say those are no match for Melissa.
WAYNE TODD:
00:02:18
We've never had one to this level. My biggest concern is really just the damage that it will do afterwards and us being stranded out here for possible weeks. This storm has already been deadly, too. At least four people died when it rolled past Haiti and the Dominican Republic. And already, the minister of Health here yesterday was saying that they know of three deaths here in Jamaica. And that was just with people preparing before the storm and most of those deaths coming from cutting trees. And there were also injuries from people falling off of roofs, as they tried to patch things up. And we can kind of give you a sense, too, of how quickly the water has been coming up in some locations. We've got a shot of a bridge that is near Kingston last night at 6 o'clock. And we can show you what it looks like now. The water is coming up, things underwater. And I know that there are a lot of areas across the city where they're very concerned that this is going to be repeated throughout the day today.
NATE BURLESON:
00:03:19
All right, Jason Allen, in Jamaica, thank you.
