KINGSTON, Jamaica – More than 300 Americans stranded in Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa departed the island Friday on rescue flights chartered by a Florida-based non-profit organisation.

The two groups of mostly Americans, who had been vacationing at various spots in Montego Bay when the Category 5 storm made landfall, were transported to the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston by Grey Bull Rescue and flown home.

“My team and I deployed from America, are mostly veterans… And we rescued just about 340 Americans from Montego Bay who were trapped and cut off [by] the hurricane,” Bryan Stern, Grey Bull Rescue founder and chairman, told Observer Online.

Hurricane Melissa slammed Jamaica as one of the most ferocious storms ever, with sustained winds estimated at 185 miles per hour while drenching the island with heavy rainfall.

Among the Americans stranded in the disaster was Markus Stokes from Los Angeles in California, who had arrived at a resort in Montego Bay on Thursday, October 23, to celebrate his sister’s 40th birthday. He had been originally scheduled to depart the island on Monday, October 26, but got stranded when flights out of the country were cancelled as Hurricane Melissa neared.

He recounted the horror and chaos when Melissa made landfall in the southwestern end of Jamaica on Tuesday, October 27.

“Everything was all good until Tuesday hit. Once Tuesday hit, it went all downhill from there,” Stokes said of the trip. “People were running and screaming, stepping on each other, the elderly falling over, I’m trying to grab people up, [but] we made it through at the end of the day.”

He said the aftermath of the storm was tough with without electricity, limited food and no connectivity, but he said “it could have been worse” and commended the hospitality from the Jamaican workers.

“One thing I got to say is that the people out here were phenomenal, that’s one thing I am going home to tell my people,” Stokes said.

Another tourist, Ryan Litchfield expressed similar sentiments about the Jamaican hospitality amid the disaster.

“It should have been more horrific than it was and I credit that to the staff. The staff we think was phenomenal,” Litchfield said. “They kept things organised and kept people calm.

Los Angeles resident Markus Stokes, who had been stranded in Jamaica due to Hurricane Melissa, hailed the hospitality he received from the island’s hotel workers. (Photo: Julian Richardson)

“We had one catastrophe that could have been a major life threatening event… they put us in the ball room, in the hallways, all the side rooms they had people sleeping and laying on cots,” Litchfield recalled.

In the meantime, Steven Depus and his wife Nyomie expressed gratitude for the Grey Bull Rescue mission. The couple, who are actually Canadian, said they were approached by a Grey Bull representative while at the hotel, now being used as a shelter, and urged to “get in line” to depart the hurricane hit island.

“We wouldn’t have got out if it wasn’t for these guys,” Steven Depus said. “A gentleman came to us and was like ‘you need to get out here now, I’m your only chance, get in the line’, he saved us.”

Grey Bull’s Stern noted that the flight comes at no cost to the stranded persons.

“We’re entirely donor-funded, it’s not about money,” Stern said. “My team and I are all volunteers, so I’m not paid. I’m the boss and I’m not paid.”

The non-profit has done similar rescues before including in Israel, Ukraine and Haiti.

**Video by Llewellyn Wynter**