KINGSTON, Jamaica — A Jamaican family of 10 in the Turks and Caicos Islands is this evening making a plea to the Government to make provisions for them and other Jamaicans to return home as Hurricane Irma approaches.

Sandra Walker, who lives on Providenciales, the most developed island in the chain, says she wants to get off the island; however they are unable to get a flight out of the country.

Walker, who says she has a four-month-old baby and is with eight other family members, is appealing to the Andrew Holness led administration to arrange for an airplane to evacuate Jamaicans living on the island as soon as possible.

She told OBSERVER ONLINE a short while ago that her family is on standby on a flight but every time they call to check they are told to keep on checking.

“I think they are trying to trick us. Irma is supposed to make landfall on Thursday but the airport sent out an advisory that they will be closed on Thursday,” she said.

“Where we live is really close to the sea and there is no way we can survive a category 5 hurricane. We can barely manage a category 3.”

Irma, a potentially catastrophic category 5 hurricane, is nearing the northern Leeward Islands an advisory from the Meteorological Service of Jamaica said this evening.

Irma is expected to turn toward the west-northwest tonight and continue for the next couple of days. On the forecast track, the extremely dangerous core of Irma will move over portions of the northern Leeward Islands tonight and early Wednesday, move near or over portions of the northern Virgin Islands Wednesday, and pass near or just north of Puerto Rico late Wednesday and Wednesday night.

Turks Caicos Islands is north of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti).

Shanica Blair