HOUSTON – A Houston woman narrowly avoided the brunt of Hurricane Melissa after leaving Jamaica on one of the last flights out of the island before the storm made landfall.

Monica McNeil, the mother of former KPRC 2 news anchor Rachel McNeil, has lived in Houston for more than 40 years. She is originally from Jamaica and had just returned from visiting family when the Category 5 hurricane struck.

McNeil said her trip had been planned months in advance with friends who invited her to visit.

“It was planned by some friends of mine that invited me, and I thought, hey, why not? That’s a good time to go, because I’m always very aware of rainy season or hurricane season, and that usually ends the end of September,” said McNeil. “So we decided to go mid-October.”

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