KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Jamaican government anticipates that emergency and relief flights will be able to land at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) on Thursday, following the passage of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa later on Tuesday.
Energy, Telecoms and Transportation Minister, Daryl Vaz, told a news conference that some telecom subscribers have already been affected by the storm, which is packing maximum sustained winds of 175 miles per hour and is expected to pass over or near the island at around midday (local time).
He said regarding the operations at the NMIA that discussions have been held with the relevant authorities to accommodate emergency flights after the storm passes.
“The assumption is that the system will leave Jamaica at the end of today…and that the impact on the Norman Manley International Airport is not extensive,” he said, adding that the authorities will use Wednesday to survey the damage, clean up the facility, and restore equipment.
“These emergency relief flights could therefore be accommodated as early as Thursday,” he said, noting that the authorities are not yet sure what will happen with Sangster International Airport at Montego Bay, which will face a lower category storm.
“The good news is that the Ian Fleming International Airport is being considered as a part of contingency planning…and we could get into Ian Fleming with several types of aircraft, and that will help us significantly based on the distance between Ian Fleming and Montego Bay”.
Vaz said the oil and energy company, Petrojam, has indicated that all three international airports, as well as all aerodromes, are at 75 to 80 per cent capacity with aviation fuel and, as a result, will allow for the movement of aircraft immediately after the storm.
“In addition, Petrojam has two to three weeks’ supply of aviation fuel at its Kingston and Montego Bay storage facilities,” he added.
He said the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) has reported that the electricity grid has already been impacted by hurricane conditions, resulting in several power outages across the island.
He said that several aspects of the JPS operations have been “forced out of service by the hurricane force winds and lightning, and as a result, approximately 240,000 or 30 percent of JPS customers are without power out of a possible 700,000”.
But he said that JPS is also reporting the majority of hospitals continue to be supplied with sufficient electricity, and others are operating on standby generators.
“There is no plan at this time to shut down the grid. JPS crews continue to respond and restore electricity to customers where it is safe to do so,” Vaz said.
He said about telecoms that at least 26 per cent of DIGICEL customers are offline, primarily due to power outages, with a further 209 sites running on generators and nine on batteries. For fiber-to-home customers, at least 20% are offline due to power outages at their homes.
Vaz said the authorities are working to increase spectrum bandwidth “as we know from our experience…that the mobile infrastructure will recover much quicker than the fixed (lines)”. Vaz said he has since signed licenses for additional spectrum with the mobile phone operators here.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHCC) said the storm, about 55 miles south-southeast of Jamaica, will bring catastrophic winds, flash flooding, and storm surge.
It said Melissa is moving toward the north-northeast at 7 mph and is expected to turn toward the northeast, with an increase in forward speed later today, followed by a faster northeastward motion on Wednesday and Thursday.
“On the forecast track, the core of Melissa is expected to make landfall on Jamaica during the next several hours, move across southeastern Cuba Wednesday morning, and move across the southeastern or central Bahamas later on Wednesday.”
The NHC said little change in strength is expected before Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica. “Melissa is expected to reach Jamaica and southeastern Cuba as an extremely dangerous major hurricane, and it will still be at hurricane strength when it moves across the southeastern Bahamas.”
Tropical storm conditions are occurring in Jamaica, and catastrophic hurricane-force winds are expected to begin during the next few hours. Melissa is expected to bring rainfall of 15 to 30 inches to portions of Jamaica.
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