When Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica this week, becoming the first Category 5 storm in recorded history to strike the island head-on, TikTok creator Nicole Doyon found herself at the center of the story.

Doyon, who traveled to Montego Bay for a yoga retreat with a group of friends, began posting updates on social media after realizing there were no commercial flights left off the island. “We have shelter, we have food, we have water, we have each other,” she said in one of her first videos, filmed as the storm rapidly intensified offshore.

The influence told followers that she and two other women were staying in a rented home as they waited for the storm to hit. Over the following days, her posts grew more urgent. In one video, recorded as sheets of rain battered the island, Doyon described the tension of waiting. “The rain is getting worse, we’ve lost visibility,” she said. Hours later, their power went out.

“I have really bad anxiety,” she admitted to viewers in another clip. “If we can keep the comments positive, please. We’re scared, and we know this is going to be traumatizing.”

For many of her nearly 300,000 followers, the updates offered a rare, firsthand view of what it’s like to endure a catastrophic storm from the inside.

On Monday morning, she shared a tour of the property’s three hurricane bunkers, showing bags packed with passports, first-aid supplies, and bottled water. “We’re ready for the worst,” she said. “But the waiting is the hardest part.”

As wind speeds climbed toward 160 miles per hour, Doyon and her friends tried to pass the time with humor. They posted a “hurricane fit check” video and played a round of Twister to ease their nerves. But as night fell, their tone turned somber. In a final TikTok before the island lost cell service, Doyon filmed herself descending into the home’s wine cellar — their safest shelter — as the storm bore down.

She has not posted another video since. On Tuesday morning, she posted to Instagram stories: “Please keep praying for Jamaica & everyone here on the island 🙏” alongside a quote from Psalm 91.

Local authorities reported extensive damage across Jamaica, including collapsed power lines and flooding in multiple parishes. Thousands of residents remain without power or clean water.

For Doyon’s followers, her videos captured a small slice of the chaos that disasters often turn into headlines: the human side — fear, uncertainty, and an attempt at grace under pressure.

In one of her earliest posts before the power cut, she summed up the situation with quiet steadiness. “We don’t know what’s coming,” she said, “but we’re trying to stay calm, stay grateful, and stay together.”