BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) -- Hurricane Melissa is expected to make landfall early Tuesday in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane. Central Alabama will not feel any direct impacts, but it is hitting hard for some people in the area.

Pauline Ford, founder of the Central Alabama Caribbean American Organization, has family in Jamaica right now. She said she feels helpless, but not hopeless.

“Jamaica is home, so my family’s there, my sister is there, my sister is in their eighties. She’s there, my brother is there, He’s in his seventies. He’s there and other my nephew and his wife and good friends. Lots of good friends there, there. So, of course, this hurricane is very near and dear to my heart in terms of the people that I love who are in harm’s way.”

Even though she is thousands of miles away

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