KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaicans scrambled Friday evening and Saturday morning to prepare for Hurricane Elsa, stocking up on kerosene, draining gas pumps and cleaning the shelves of tin foods.

Manager at Johnson’s Petroleum, Michael Simpson, told Observer Online that kerosene oil sales jumped three-fold on the day.

“Kerosene sales are up and I’m assuming it’s the report of the storm that is causing the sales,” Simpson said, adding “The kerosene sale is probably triple the regular sales and we are anticipating that it will be more (Saturday).

“We have sufficient [supply] and we have more coming tomorrow, so we will not be running out of Kerosene anytime soon,” Simpson said.

Clarendon resident Christopher Williams said he happened to be in Kingston and stopped at the gas station to purchase kerosene in preparation for the hurricane.

“I’m from Longville Park, Clarendon, We just a do little jump around, buy some oil [and] get the necessary stuff them, so we’re taking it serious.  You have to because normally this time of year you don’t normally get it [hurricane], you know things are changing, so you just have to do what you have to do,” Williams stated.

While gas stations were overflowing with cars, supermarkets were also doing bumper business.

The Sampars Cash & Carry wholesale in Cross Roads was flooded with customers purchasing candles, kerosene and tin foods.

One customer, Elicia, told Observer Online that she was shopping to ensure she has enough supplies to ride out the potential storm.

“I normally shop like this but because of the hurricane there’s additional stuff. So instead of buying two or three tin stuff you buy six so you have enough in case you have to be locked up or you can’t come out if the hurricane should come,” Elicia said, as she explained that her Waltham Park community is flood prone due to a gully nearby.

She stated: “where I live in Waltham, any time the gully full up it normally come over and flood the entire road,; sometimes it comes into our yard.”

In the meantime, at Lee’s Food Fair on Red Hills Road, a long line of shoppers could be observed waiting to enter the supermarket on Saturday morning. Patrick Lee, manager of the supermarket, told Observer Online that the heavy crowd of shoppers Friday evening was arguably the largest he has seen since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

“People want to make sure they have enough supplies, they don’t want to be caught unprepared,” Lee said, adding that the supermarket had enough supplies to meet demand.

Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record, beating out last year’s Eduardo which formed on July 6, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

 Jamaica remained under a hurricane warning up to Saturday morning even as it appeared that the island will miss the worst of the storm which was shifting towards southern Haiti.

Additional reporting by Romardo Lyons