00:00We're continuing to see the widespread destruction left behind in the Caribbean,
00:04including Jamaica, where Melissa hit as a Category 5 hurricane on Tuesday.
00:08For the latest, we're joined now by storm chaser Brandon Clement on the phone,
00:12live from New Hope, Jamaica.
00:15And Brandon, we talked to you yesterday.
00:17You said that you, along with rescue and aid workers,
00:21were struggling to get to that landfall point,
00:23and you've made it a significant way now.
00:26Yeah, we've made it all the way down to where the hurricane made landfall.
00:31Black River is just to the east of where the landfall happened.
00:35Of course, they got an eastern eye wall, which is the worst part of the hurricane,
00:39and they're in some really bad shape there.
00:41A lot of desperation going on at the moment.
00:44Give us more of a description.
00:46What are you seeing on the ground, and what are you hearing from the locals?
00:50You know, they have nothing.
00:52Every home there is damaged.
00:55Most of them are destroyed.
00:56The hospital is damaged.
00:58There's no power.
00:58There's no communications.
01:00There's no supplies like food or water, no electricity, no gas.
01:03So it's basically a complete collapse of infrastructure.
01:07And when you get in that position, this is now basically day three,
01:12three and a half almost since you've started seeing hurricane conditions.
01:16On time now, and people are starting to get desperate.
01:19They haven't been able to get roads into Black River, just now starting to get clear enough
01:27for cars to get through at a very slow rate between trees and power lines and debris.
01:32Brandon, where are people staying?
01:34I know a lot of these structures have been destroyed.
01:37So are there tents being set up or temporary shelters?
01:48Brandon, I'm not sure if you can hear us right now.
01:50We're just curious if you're aware of where people are staying,
01:52if there are temporary structures being built at this point.
01:54We may have lost his connection.
01:58Yeah, I know we've had a lot of signal issues.
02:00And I mean, he was just saying that, you know,
02:02the infrastructure is incredibly damaged there in Black River and in the New Hope area.
02:07So not surprising that we're struggling to get a connection there with Brandon.
02:14Good information that he was able to bring us in the meantime.
02:16I know yesterday at this point, we didn't have much of an idea of exactly what things looked like.
02:21I mean, you could imagine, given the Category 5 status,
02:24but now we have a little bit of a better picture of just how bad things are there.
02:30And the good news as we look ahead with Melissa,
02:33because this is still a hurricane headed towards Bermuda.
02:36But, Jeff, a Category 2 in Bermuda is very well equipped for a low-end hurricane like that.
02:41Yeah, very different from other parts of the world.
02:44So you could see where Brandon was located.
02:46He's in New Hope now.
02:47He made it to the point of landfall.
02:48And again, so what, two days plus four or five hours, two days plus three hours ago.
02:54So about 51 hours ago, the storm was moving through this area with tenacity.
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