Rutland couple in the eye of the storm

Thursday, 6 November 2025 10:38

A couple from Rutland say they are lucky to be alive after a holiday of a lifetime saw them in an underground shelter where the roof blew off

due to winds of up to 175 miles an hour as Hurricane Melissa hit their holiday resort in Jamaica. Nigel Thomas and his partner Nickie have returned home this week as they were able to catch a flight away from the devastation. Nigel describes the moment they've been evacuated to a shelter as the hurricane hit.

‘We were sitting out and we could hear these massive bangs, like a car hitting the roof and stuff. So I said to her, we will go down the other end near the toilets, there’s a passageway there, sort of feel a bit safer down there for some reason. And then ten minutes later, it ripped the roof off the actual building. While you were in it? While we were in it. Yeah. And, you know, and then everybody went into panic and then it was literally like a disaster movie. The way that people acted, people running, screaming, some praying, yeah, I mean and stuff like that. And then eventually we got ushered downstairs with no lights or anything. The lights had gone out and we had to stay there for another seven or eight hours even though the storm had gone because they had do inspections on the place. We went to bed at night you know we managed to go back to the room, when we got up in the morning and you could just see the devastation. You know it was absolutely unbelievable to be quite honest with you. I've never witnessed anything like it in my life.’