As flights from the Caribbean continued to land in South Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, CBS News Miami caught up with a man who was on the other side of the doors, waiting for someone special.
An emotional reunion unfolded for Mark Campbell as he hugged his 12-year-old son extra tight on Saturday after being separated for days because of Melissa.
“When the hurricane was coming, I was scared,” he told CBS News Miami. “I was scared I wasn’t there. Him and his brother [were] there.”
Campbell sent his son on vacation with his brother to Discovery Bay in Jamaica. But, his son got stuck and Campbell was forced to watch Hurricane Melissa rip through his beloved country helplessly — right in the thick of the storm.
“Me being here and they are in Jamaica, I was very worried,” Campbell said. “Even last night, my head hurt when I couldn’t hear nothing.”
No cell service or WiFi made it even more nerve-wracking.
Eventually, Campbell heard back and made arrangements to get his son back as soon as possible, but he can’t help but think of his original home.
“Yeah, I feel good to see him to know everything is good because I heard it’s not looking good down there,” he told CBS News Miami. “Even in my community, I see where light posts fall in the road. People look at everything that they got — it’s a devastation.”
Many had to travel across Jamaica to return to the U.S.
On the same flight as Campbell’s son was Antoinetta Jones, who was staying 45 minutes outside Montego Bay. She told CBS News Miami she was not expecting the storm to be as bad as it was.
“The day after the hurricane, we lost connection to the world,” Jones said. “We weren’t able to use our phones for like two or three days.”
Like Campbell’s son and many others stuck in the western part of Jamaica, Jones had to find a way to travel to Kingston due to the Montego Bay Airport being closed.
“Our flights just kept getting delayed, delayed, delayed,” she told CBS News Miami. “They were saying the airport was going to open back up but you know it didn’t.”
Flights that were expected out of Montego Bay to arrive at MIA have been continuously canceled. Many people told CBS News Miami that they had to pay high prices to be transported to the airport in Kingston, which is about a three-hour drive.
