Mandeville residents stock up on bread as Hurricane Melissa approaches

As the rainfall increased and winds from Hurricane Melissa picked up speed in Mandeville, Manchester this morning, some residents were making one last ditch to get an item many deemed crucial to getting them through the storm - bread.

“Bread is a very important part of any household. If light goes out, if gas goes out, you can purchase bread, bread is a staple, it's been a part of civilisation for so long,” Chief Executive Officer of Top Loaf Bake Shops Limited, Ryan Chen, said.

The bakery was one of the few businesses open in the town.

Chen said that although the lines are shorter today, the demand for bread has been consistent.

“We realise that there is a need in the public because we are preparing for the storm and it has been so unpredictable, that people have been purchasing supplies from last week Wednesday, Thursday but they have run out of those supplies and people have been calling and so all of our staff came out very, very early this morning to supply fresh bread to the public,” he said.

Garth Smith was one of those customers who had already purchased bread for his family.

But he told The Gleaner that they [bread] are now finished and he was instructed by his mother to come out and get more.

“We had exhausted some of those supplies. She told me that I had to get….two large jumbo breads,” he said while displaying his goods.

Meanwhile, Joel Clayton, who is visiting Jamaica from the United States, said he travelled from his home in Albion in the parish, just to top up on the staple.

“It's still available and I don't know how long…I know that everywhere else is going to close when the hurricane gets more serious, so I would like to just get some additional things, just in case,” he said.

Chen, in the meantime, said they are monitoring Hurricane Melissa, which is now a Category 5 storm with winds in excess of 160 miles per hour.

It is inching towards Jamaica today and is expected to move near or over the Caribbean island on Tuesday.

Chen told The Gleaner that arrangements have also been made to take employees back home safely, and it is highly unlikely that the shop will be opened tomorrow.

“We try to balance serving the public and making sure we can safely take home our staff,” he said.

He also noted that the business has made as much preparation to ensure it copes throughout the storm.

“We tried to make as many preparations as early as possible so that we can operate, we make sure that we have our fuel supplies, extra resources as far as raw materials are concerned, that generators are working.”

- Sashana Small

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