Beryl leaves Atlanta family in Jamaica; forced to continue paying for resort with no electricity

An Atlanta family’s dream vacation turned into a nightmare after Hurricane Beryl hit Jamaica during their stay.

“They’re depressed, my kids are depressed,” said Tawanda Jones, an Atlanta mother.

She and five family members were staying at the Jewel Grande resort in Montego Bay. They have now been stranded in Jamaica by Beryl. Jones filmed the flooding from the balcony of their hotel room as the storm hit the island on Wednesday. And their resort has been without power ever since.

“It’s 80 to 90 degrees in our room, and it’s scorching hot. Your nose sweats, everything sweats,” Jones said.

She said they tried leaving the windows open to cool the room, but then mosquitoes started to invade inside.

“So we’re getting eaten alive, I tried to do that last night and I got so many bites on my legs, so I’m not doing it tonight, I’m not going to do it,” Jones said.

She also shared with us a video of a hotel room plunged into darkness after the sun went down.

The family was supposed to fly out on July 4, but Delta Air Lines canceled their flight and said the earliest they could fly was Monday.

“And I told him I was a registered nurse. I couldn’t be away from work that long and not be able to go back, and we have a daughter with special needs, cerebral palsy and deafness, and we left her with someone to watch her while we were gone. And they have to go back to work,” Jones said.

To top it off, she claims the resort is trying to charge them for the extra days they spend there.

“$176 per person and there are six of us,” Jones said.

Jones feels like she’s almost out of breath.

“I didn’t budget for it…and the kids have nothing to do, and I worry about what they’re going to charge me at the end of the day, I just can’t,” Jones said.

She said she was still working to get an earlier flight home.