00:00As Melissa bears down on the Caribbean, veteran storm chaser Brandon Clement is in Jamaica as conditions worsen, capturing what could be a major humanitarian crisis.
00:10Now, Brandon, you have covered countless powerful storms. What are you expecting to face as Melissa approaches Jamaica?
00:19Well, you know, when you talk about hurricanes, most people focus on the category and the wind speed, and that's not the case here.
00:26Even though it could be a big part of the story, the big factor that I'm really concerned about is the rainfall, the amount of flooding, the landslides.
00:33Jamaica's got mountainous terrain, and you're going to have a lot of rain that pushes up into those mountains, into the rivers.
00:40And wherever those rivers come down out of the mountains into populations, really my biggest concerns.
00:44But you've got concerns with urban flooding as well, storm surge, and, of course, the winds too.
00:51Now, you've talked about that life-threatening flooding. Landslides, too, can be another factor.
00:56What's the atmosphere like right now as people are trying to prepare?
00:59Is anybody rather evacuating or sheltering in place?
01:04It's actually one of the calmest scenes I've ever dealt with considering the forecast.
01:09Usually if you see a forecast like this, there's pure panic.
01:12There's gas lines everywhere. The stores are sold out, everything.
01:15Really, people are just kind of taking it easy.
01:18I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
01:19And we'll see on the backside of this.
01:22But for now, it's not a lot of great infrastructure here.
01:28I don't know how much they can really prepare and how much there is to be done,
01:33especially with some of the poverty as well in those areas.
01:35So it's really a scary idea of what could happen, but not a whole lot of ways for a lot of people to prep to.
01:44Now, whenever we talk about and you hear the term humanitarian crisis connected to a storm like this,
01:50what does that mean from your vantage point?
01:52What do you see first whenever conditions start to deteriorate?
01:55Well, it's different everywhere you go and what a humanitarian crisis can be defined as is different.
02:03But the loss of basic essential infrastructure from power to transportation to communications to medical response,
02:16when you lose all of those things, things deteriorate really quickly from so many different levels.
02:23Because when you lose those things, you also lose the basic everyday things like food, food supplies, just going to the store, little things, gas.
02:35So, you know, I'm preparing for a situation where there's no power, very little ability to move, no communications.
02:44Those are the types of things I prepare for.
02:46Whether or not we get that type of disaster or not, you know, it remains to be seen.
02:52But I have to prepare that way as if it's going to happen.
02:56Now, you've talked that you are preparing a lot for this storm.
02:59But how do you manage to stay safe while documenting what's going on the ground?
03:03How do you choose those spots of where you're going to stay?
03:05And have you found that yet?
03:09Well, that's why I'm in a car right now.
03:11I'm actually on the ground scouting every little area I can, looking at every little road,
03:16every part of the cities, trying to get an idea of where high ground is, where I can have safe spots to fall back to.
03:25Usually, you know, sometimes we'll get one room if it's ideal.
03:30Sometimes if it's not, a couple different scenarios could play out.
03:34We may do two.
03:35That way we can bounce back and forth between the two.
03:37You know, we've got a car rental, got gas, got food, got groceries, water.
03:43So, it's like, get the essentials in place.
03:46You know, I've got communications.
03:47That way, no matter what happens, I'll have at least some form of comms.
03:51But from there, it's just experience and knowing what to do in these situations and not panicking.
03:58That's the best way to stay safe.
04:01A lot of things can happen that you can't predict.
04:04But being able to react the right way in those situations is really important.
04:11Absolutely.
04:12Storm Chaser Brandon Clement in Jamaica, thank you so much for joining us here on the AccuWeather Network.
04:19All right.
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