Hurricane Melissa is bearing down on Jamaica, and a local man fears for the safety of his family and homeland. Neville Hamilton, who now lives in Steinbach, is originally from St. Catherine, Jamaica. He says he has been following the news closely, and this latest storm is bringing back difficult memories. “Like all this rush of uncertainty and stuff that we probably are not hoping to experience. And everybody is trying to get ready and there's a rush at the supermarket. You can't get stuff to buy because it's out.” Hamilton says Hurricane Melissa reminds him of Hurricane Gilbert, which struck Jamaica 37 years ago as a powerful Category 5 storm. “Gilbert was one of the stronger winds that came through. And I thought Gilbert was not as strong as this one that is coming. So, I'm really worried of the damage that is going to be happening in Jamaica.” Hamilton recently travelled to Jamaica with the IRAL Creatives Youth Group. “We worked on a church building because they lost their roof in a previous hurricane. We just put this on in July, and so now, even [that] work is going to be tested too in line of the fire of the hurricane that is going on right now.” He says he is deeply concerned for his family, friends, and neighbours back home. “We don't know what's going to happen, so that's the sad thing. We've seen videos of the wind in some areas and it's already creating havoc. Because of the rain that's been falling, what happens is the soil gets really soft right and saturated and then when the strong wind comes, there's going to be things flying around like crazy, so the lives of our Jamaican families are in question right now.” Hamilton says his family is doing what they can to prepare. “One of the things that Jamaicans usually do is we'll go and get lots of blocks, concrete blocks or sandbags, and we'll start putting them on the roof. We'll be making sure we have lots of weight on the roofs because we usually use zinc in Jamaica, aluminum zinc sheeting and stuff. So, I know my family there, they have already done some of that, and bracing themselves for the worst.” He says his family has shared how worried they are about what’s to come. “The last news I heard, it was going from between a Category 4 to a Category 5. And I think this is probably the strongest one that would be hitting Jamaica in my lifetime. And I'm not that young, so it's something huge.” Watching from Canada, Hamilton says it’s hard to feel so helpless. “I was a very active person when it comes to helping community in Jamaica.” He explains that if he were there, he’d be helping his neighbours prepare. “We'll check on the older folks, because my family was always involved in the community, especially the church. There's a lot of people who wouldn't be able to climb on the roofs and stuff like that. So, we'll go around days before, helping these people.” Now that he is not there to help, he is even more worried about his community. “I don't know how much of them are actually being taken care of in that sense. It's a heartbreaking thing and I'm here and I can't do nothing, and just too far. That really hits hard.” While it’s too early to know the full extent of the damage, Hamilton says they’re already thinking about how to support recovery efforts. “I'm not sure how that looks yet. We'll have to actually go through the hit to find out what we can assess and bring back to the community to say we need help here, we'd like to help Jamaica there.” With files from Kenton Dyck