Best Friends Don’t Leave In A Storm

A Category Five hurricane hits Jamaica and a friendship hits its breaking point. Two best friends arrive for a much-needed getaway; flights spike, panic rises, and only one has the $500 to get out. She boards a plane, citing her kids and safety. The other is left behind to ride out a historic storm with no cash and no partner at her side. That choice sparked outrage online—and a raw conversation here about loyalty, responsibility, and what “best friend” truly means when it’s not sunny and calm.

We walk through the dilemma step by step: the sudden price surge, the scramble for options, and the split-second decision that turned a vacation into a test of character. Along the way, we separate sound travel planning from moral obligation. Yes, you should have an emergency fund. But when one friend can bridge the gap in a life-threatening situation, the question shifts from budgeting to values. Would you front the money, split the cost, or stay and bunker down together? And if you chose to leave, what would you put in place to keep your friend safe?

We also tap into the deeper thread running through the comments: the state of modern friendship. Boundary talk is everywhere, but boundaries aren’t excuses for indifference. Real best friend energy looks like action under pressure—calling family, crowdsourcing support, negotiating with airlines, and refusing to abandon each other in a foreign country. We share practical steps for emergency planning, from pre-trip agreements to on-the-ground tactics, and we unpack the long-term cost of crisis decisions on trust, forgiveness, and community.

If this story hit a nerve, you’re not alone. Press play, weigh the choices, and tell us where you stand. Subscribe for more grounded, real-world conversations, share this with a friend who rides for you, and leave a review with your take—would you stay, split, or go?

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Scene: Jamaica Story
• 0:40 The Hurricane And The $500 Dilemma
• 1:56 Loyalty Test: Leave Or Stick Together
• 3:16 Crowd Reactions And Tough Questions
• 5:22 Defining Real Friendship
• 7:13 Aftermath, Karma, And Choosing Friends

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:10

Oh man, y'all just on one today, huh? I just did a story earlier about the whole insensitivity thing in Jamaica about the people, how the lady was treating the staff. And then I just cruise through social media and I see more stuff. I said, okay, then I'm gonna come on here, back on here, and talk about this one. But it's your boy Damon. I'm here with the DK and Tree podcast. Okay, okay. All right. I'm gonna just let you hear this one for yourself, and that way you can judge for yourself. Because this didn't make any sense to me.

SPEAKER_00: 0:49

Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight. Two best friends, keyword best friends, keep that in mind, decide that they're gonna go to Jamaica to have some fun and turn up. They arrived at Jamaica only to find out that a hurricane is approaching Jamaica, a category five at that. So they're like, wait a minute, you know, I don't think we should ride this thing out. Let's try to make it back home to our families, right? So the two best friends, keep that in mind, decide to look up some flights. They find flights, but the flights are an extra$500 a piece. Now, one of the friends has$500 to go ahead and book the flight. The other friend does not have$500 to book her a flight uh back home. So do we sit and strategize and start reaching out to friends and family to come up with another$500? Or do we keep that$500, stay in Jamaica, ride it out until we are able to safely make it back home on a flight that's more affordable? No, no, we don't. See, one of the friends decides that hey, I got kids, sweetheart, I gotta go back um home to the United States of America, and she proceeds to hop on a flight and go back home and leaves her best friend behind in Jamaica to ride out a category five hurricane by herself with no money. That is a diabolical, and that is not best friend energy. Let me tell you something. Best friend energy is I'm Rada. Okay, I got your back, you got my back. We come together, we leave together. You broke, and I got it, we got it, okay, and vice versa. We out the country, I'm not leaving you by yourself, you're not leaving me by myself. But to be out the country and actually leave the country and leave your best friend in a whole nother country, and your excuses because you have kids, like she doesn't have a family back home that loves and cares about her well-being. Oh baby, just know when Melissa uh you know comes through and leaves, and I make it back to the United States, we are no longer best friends, and it might just be on site. I'm just saying, who does that? Who does that? That is not giving best friend energy, couldn't have been best friends. This was this had to be somebody she just, you know, you know, an associate, somebody she just kicked it with. Ain't no way I'm calling somebody my best friend, and they leave me in another country with no money. There's no way I would have left my friend behind with a dangerous storm approaching. We would have scrimped called every person that we knew, okay. Started a campaign on Facebook, Instagram, asking for some coins to get out of Jamaica together. But to leave your best friend is horrible, diabolical. We not best friends no more. Drop your thoughts in the comments. What do you think about this situation? They are definitely not best friends. It don't even sound like they have history. Y'all had to just become friends. I don't know. But until next time, I'll talk to you guys later. Save travels. Bye. Wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_01: 4:24

So you telling me, you telling me that you're my best friend, and we know a dangerous storm is coming, and you don't have the money, and I'm your best friend, and I'm gonna leave you in a hurricane, and you're my best friend. Now, I was reading through some of the comments, like I always do, because you know I like both sides of the story, and some people's like, well, she shouldn't have never gone down there without enough money anyway. Or why would you travel someplace and know you can't afford it? Okay, but if you're my best friend and you're telling me that you would leave me here, you wouldn't try to help me at all, I would never do that to my best friend. Never do that to my best friend. Me and Tree have been friends for over 29 years. 29 years. And if we went someplace together and we knew a dangerous storm was coming, and she was short, I'ma make sure she got that money to get home. We going home together, or we're gonna ride that storm out together. See, a lot of people out here don't know what true friendship is these days. We got a lot of fake friends out here, a lot of fake friends. They say they're your friend, but they'll stab you in the back as soon as you turn your back. Or they say you're they're your friend in front of your face, but low key will down you behind your back. They don't want to see you shine. But again, if we someplace together and we're trying to get out of there, we're gonna get out of there together, or we're gonna ride that storm together. Any friend that I have that's close to me would do the same thing. We all ride for each other. You know, everybody's on this selfish mentality these days. You know, it's all about me, me, me, me, me. But what about the next person? Would this person give you the shirt off their back? Would this person give you their last? Would this person go above and beyond for you, but you didn't do that for them? I would have never, and this is me, I'm speaking for me. I would have never left my best friend someplace in a storm, a dangerous storm. And if you've been following everything that's been going on, you know what's been going on down here in Jamaica. You know the damage that place has caused. You know the devastation. People have lost everything. A storm that's been the worst in history for them. Over 90 years of a storm of that magnitude hitting that island that covered the whole island. But I'm gonna leave my best friend there to suffer or get slaughtered by a storm unacceptable. I would never do that to someone I call my best friend. Never now, again, I'm reading the comments, and some people like nope, I would have left, I would have did this, I would have did that. And hey, you have to make the best decisions for you. I get it. But just know that hey, karma does come around. Karma does come around. If you're my best friend, I'ma ride for you just like you're gonna ride for me. I would have never left my best friend in a storm. Because, like she was saying in the post, it's probably gonna be on site when I see the person. That's if I make it through this. Unacceptable. People, you need to choose your friends wisely out here because you never know who's for you and who's against you. And in that instance, that person wasn't for the person, it was totally against them. Even if they had to get to their kids or something, that was you and your best friend that went on a trip and you couldn't help your best friend out. Old cliche of saying this saying with friends like that, who needs enemies? Who needs enemies? Because if that's the case, huh? I don't I don't need no enemies. That person just showed me right there, they was against me. But I'ma tune off on that note. I just wanted to come back on here and just do a little update with that. To me, that was completely unacceptable. I would never left my best friend behind at all. Either we going together or we gonna ride it out together. Plain and simple.