'God protect us': Chapel Hill woman's education trip to Jamaica derailed by Hurricane Melissa

A woman from the Triangle is having a memorable trip experience in Jamaica, just not for reasons she predicted, thanks to Hurricane Melissa.

Crystal Walker planned to return to Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Sunday, Oct. 26. Her flight was scheduled for 2 p.m.

RELATED: Halifax couple honeymooning in Jamaica ask for prayers as Hurricane Melissa makes landfall

But she, like many others, got the notification that the
airport in Jamaica would be shutting down at noon on Sunday, with Melissa on the way. That meant she would be trapped with many other visitors on
the island, waiting out the storm.

Walker’s hotel — Ocean Coral Spring Resort in
Trelawny, Jamaica — was evacuated. On Tuesday, she spent the day at the
highest level of a convention center, in a conference room filled with rows
of cots — a makeshift shelter.

Walker graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and lives in Chapel Hill. She’s been posting updates on Facebook of her journey.

She’s a leader with the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation.
The 19-person group was supposed to only have a three-day trip. A few people
managed to get out of Jamaica, but more than a dozen of them are still stuck.

“The winds are high,” Walker said. “She’s
landed. She’s here. She’s slow-moving, but she’s here. I was standing next to a
window not too long ago, and the window started shaking.”

On Tuesday, Walker posted photos to Facebook that showed the entrances to the hotel boarded up, comparing the intensity of the storm to an “irate King Kong.”

Melissa made landfall on Tuesday afternoon as a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph.