All 25,000 international visitors who remained in Jamaica while Hurricane Melissa made landfall were accounted for and in good health, Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s tourism minister, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Two tourists suffered “minor lacerations” from falling debris and another suffered a stroke, but “the medical condition of everybody is in good order,” he said.
Mr. Bartlett said that he expected Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston would open on Wednesday for relief flights and humanitarian aid. On Thursday, flights should be able to land to evacuate guests who wish to leave, he added.
The minister intended to visit Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay on Wednesday to assess the damage, and said that he hoped it would open in the next two days to allow regular commercial flights to restart.
Mr. Barlett said that Hurricane Melissa hit hardest along the country’s west coast, in the St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St. James and Trelawny Parishes. During the storm, all tourists at hotel complexes were consolidated into one or two buildings on each property, he said, where food and water was provided to them. Every hotel had a doctor on call or a nurse on the property, Mr. Bartlett added.
As Jamaica continued to assess the damage wrought by the hurricane, the minister said he remained optimistic about the country’s recovery.
Claire Fahy reports on New York City and the surrounding area for The Times.
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