'Things flying through the air': Vancouver chocolatier recounts riding out hurricane Beryl in his hotel room

Vancouver chocolatier Thomas Haas, his wife and children arrived in Jamaica on Monday for a large family reunion. But one of his wife’s cousins backed out at the last minute.

“He’s like, 'No, I did my research. It’s not looking good that the hurricane is heading right towards Jamaica,'” said Haas.

It turns out, that cousin was right. As hurricane Beryl approached Jamaica Wednesday, Haas and his family went into lockdown in their Montego Bay hotel room.

“From one o’clock it got really intense and we saw the first few metal roofs coming off when we looked down to the beach,” said Haas. “And then from 5 'til 8 o’clock in the evening, it was torrential rain, 140-mile-an-hour winds and you did see things flying through the air.”

Haas and his family were relieved to be riding out the storm in a large hotel, and they worried about how locals were faring.

“Just the thought of what’s going on in town is probably the saddest occupier of your mind," he said. "I was like, 'Oh my God, I don’t know what's going to happen there.'”

Around midnight, after the storm had passed, he ventured down to the lobby.

“The entire lobby was in pieces, the glass shattered, it was flooded, eerily silent,” he recounted.

• In pictures: Scenes of destruction in powerful Beryl's wake
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At first light on Thursday, Haas surveyed the property and saw destruction everywhere.

“About half a dozen buildings, gazebos, a whole row of concreted-in umbrellas and palm trees went down,” he said.

The family reunion guests and others decided to pitch in to help.

“We raked the beaches and took garbage bags and garbage bags of debris away. And with all the bad experiences and the devastation, it was a little bit of an upside,” he said.

With the airport still closed, Haas isn’t sure if he’ll make his scheduled flight home on Saturday.

“We are just going to take it day by day and roll with the punches,” he said.

While the trip didn’t go as expected, he said “it was a family reunion to remember, for sure.”