Mud splash

A drowning woman clutched her United States and Canada visas before being rescued by a neighbour as water levels rose to her breast in what turned out to be unprecedented volumes covering ground floors in Catherine Hall, St James.

Rose Holness, a resident of the Coconut Loop community in Catherine Hall, was covered in mud and muck and clad in male garments when The Gleaner saw her working feverishly to clear a blocked drain on Thursday, some 48 hours after Hurricane Melissa left destruction never before experienced in a storm out west.

“Mi could only grab mi passport with mi likkle visa dem in deh because mi know dem nah go gi mi back. Mi grab it a say if mi get a ticket mi ca go America,” Holness told The Gleaner.

Already at retirement age, she said she would have to start over from scratch.

“Mi nuh have it. Mi a 65 years old and mi nah work. Mi just a recover from Beryl. This is no joke thing, mi can’t even find a pot fi cook inna,” Holness said as she led The Gleaner on a tour through what was left of her house.

She could not put a dollar figure to her losses.

“A millions… mi can’t even put a dollar figure to it, mi nah exaggerate, see God up a heaven deh. Mi TV alone a 65”; a $170,000 mi pay for it, see it throw weh outside. Not to mention, mi just buy mi fridge four months ago, $200,000 because the one I had before, the lightning inna Beryl strike it,” Holness said.

The residents in Coconut Loop said a clogged drain and unfinished roadworks compounded the flooding problem.

CLEARING DRAIN

“This come in like a mud splash. The heavy silt, the mud clog up back the drain so we afi deh clear it. We use the long stick and ram it up until it clear,” Holness said.

“Mi live down here so 43 years, a di first this ever happen. Gilbert come and whole heap a hurricane come and we never get this but because guess what, the sea come in pon we to and two different river, Barnett River and Pie River… . You see anyhow we did gone a we bed, pure dead body dem would a tek out here,” Holness said as she indicated that staying up was key to their survival.

Her hurricane pot of food, to take her through the storm, got washed away.

“Mi dumplin, yam and banana it wash away gone,” Holness said, making light of a serious situation.

Landmarks in Catherine Hall, such as the stadium and Reggae Sumfest venue, were inundated with murky water.

The nearby MegaMart store was also flooded.

When The Gleaner checked on Thursday, they were closed and doing cleaning activities at the location adjacent Coconut Loop.

Holness cannot swim and told The Gleaner it was her neighbour, Christopher Barnaby, who has been a tower of strength to her and the community.

“A him (Barnaby) save mi, god bless him, enuh,” Holness said.

“It was rough, but we affi help we neighbour dem because we see weh we a go through here so for years… . When mi see her a come (wading through the murky water) is like water deh up on her neck and she say nuh make mi drown, and mi say yuh nah drown and mi pull her,” Barnaby told The Gleaner.

The residents reportedly held each other’s arms, made a chain and, along with Barnaby, pulled who needed help to higher ground.

“Mi say, see cloths here, see water here, gwaan go bath and wash off yourself. We affi help each other,” Barnaby insisted.

He said his home could be used by those who were greatly affected to stay and get some rest.

‘WI AFFI HELP WI SELF’

“Mi just give a guy some money to buy gas for the bobcat to help push off the water in the lane. It nah go better fi right now but we affi try do weh we can do. We nah wait pon nobody fi come and help we, we affi help we self. Without we there is no help because dem goodly want help themself to,” Barnaby told The Gleaner.

Another resident said she was not at home at the time, but what she returned to was not much different from where she was staying.

“I was in Tucker, Irwin, and it’s basically the same thing over that side. Hundreds of people homeless. No water, no light, no food. Everything gone. There isn’t a word built for this (what we endured). If I say it’s a disaster, it’s an understatement,” the residents said.

She said her family and the other residents in Coconut Loop were not prepared for this.

“The way they (authorities) explained it... because the batten down of the house never do nothing. We did that, we full up containers. The flood still took it, all of the containers that we were depending on is no more,” the resident said.

The resident also told The Gleaner no one, up to 1 p.m. on Thursday, had visited them with any solution or a view to help.

“We nuh see nobody. No JLP (Jamaica Labour Party), no P (PNP) at all. We nuh see no help, no form of equipment to clean. We need water to clean away this silt,” she said.

The residents threw out damaged televisions, refrigerators, furniture and appliances, which became an eyesore along the roadway.

“Nothing electronic no save, no food nuh save. All money wash weh. All when we buy up things to prepare, nothing nuh save. My daughter cried. She say, ‘Mommy, we going to die’,” a resident said, adding that the clothes on her back were her only possessions.

Another resident, Wilma Bryan, and her daughters were busy cleaning their home together.

“The settee, all a we food gone. We need food, clothing, bedding, everything gone. Right now, honestly, I don’t know what I am doing, just trying to get some of the mud out the way,” Bryan told The Gleaner.

She said they don’t know the first step to recovery from the catastrophe caused by Hurricane Melissa.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com