Some residents in Jamaica say they won’t evacuate their homes despite the threat of destruction that Hurricane Melissa is expected to bring to the island.
“I hear what they say, but I am not leaving,” Noel Francis, a 64-year-old fisherman, told The Associated Press.
Francis lives on the beach in the southern town of Old Harbor Bay, where he was born. “I can manage myself,” he said.
His neighbor, Bruce Dawkins, also said he would stay and ride the storm out with his friend.
“I am not going anywhere,” he told The Associated Press.
Another resident, Hyacinthe White, said while she is concerned about water levels, she had no plans to evacuate, the Associated Press reported.
“My only concern is flooding, because we live near the sea,” White said.
Sandra Walker, a single mother of two, told The Associated Press she had “no choice” but to remain in her stall shop sorting the produce she sells.
Walker said she won’t go to a shelter because of a “terrible” experience she endured during Hurricane Ivan in 2004, when she said she was only offered a handful of tins of corned beef to share, according to The Associated Press.