The Gov­ern­ment says it close­ly mon­i­tor­ing Trop­i­cal Storm Melis­sa as it moves through the Caribbean Sea, reaf­firm­ing that the safe­ty of na­tion­als re­mains its top pri­or­i­ty.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs said Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als, in­clud­ing stu­dents seek­ing to leave Ja­maica, will be giv­en pri­or­i­ty on Caribbean Air­lines fol­low­ing dis­cus­sions be­tween that min­istry, the Min­istry of Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion and Skills Train­ing, and the air­line.

It said for stu­dents un­able to trav­el, the High Com­mis­sion in Kingston has been di­rect­ed to main­tain emer­gency sup­plies and is co­or­di­nat­ing with The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Mona, and Ja­maican au­thor­i­ties to safe­guard their wel­fare.

Trop­i­cal Storm Melis­sa has been mak­ing its way through the Caribbean. It has left three peo­ple dead in haiti.

Haiti re­port­ed flood­ing of the Saint Mar­tin Riv­er, caused by heavy rains, which al­so de­stroyed a bridge in Saint Suzanne, in the north­east re­gion of Haiti. Homes were al­so de­stroyed or dam­aged al­so in Port-de-Paix in the north­west. Though the trop­i­cal storm, which on track to be­com­ing a ma­jor hur­ri­cane next week, has veered slight­ly from Haiti’s south­ern coast, the Na­tion­al Hur­ri­cane Cen­ter warned Haitians that it’s ex­pect­ed to bring life-threat­en­ing and cat­a­stroph­ic flash floods and land­slides. The same warn­ing has al­so been is­sued for parts of Ja­maica and the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, where res­i­dents are be­ing urged to pre­pare and pay at­ten­tion to up­dates.

Of­fices in Ja­maica be­gan clos­ing ear­ly yes­ter­day as the ef­fects of Trop­i­cal Storm Melis­sa be­gan to be felt.

The min­istry in its state­ment said con­sular as­sis­tance is avail­able via the High Com­mis­sion in Kingston at 1 (876) 926-5730, 1 (876) 926-5739, or 1 (876) 968-0588, and the min­istry in Port-of-Spain at (868) 623-6894. Stu­dents have al­so been urged to con­tact Aman­da Fras­er at 1 (876) 480-3537 or hck­ingston@for­eign.gov.tt.