‘I thought this was the end’

Teniesha Kelly believes it was divine intervention that spared her family’s lives as Hurricane Melissa – a deadly Category 5 storm – tore through her Windsor, St Ann community, flattening homes and sending zinc sheets flying through the night sky.

“I was praying so hard till mi tiad and mi never waan sleep,” Kelly recalled, still shaken a day after the storm. “Mi all a pray and cry.

“ At one point, mi feel like mi did a go lose mi mind. I thought this was the end, but mi say, ‘Cancel dat!’, and God helped me through it,” she added.

Inside the three-bedroom wooden house, Kelly’s frightened 15-year-old niece battled an asthma attack as fierce winds pounded the roof. Much of the roofing was torn away, rain poured in, and a section of land beside the house slipped, throwing one room off balance – but miraculously, everyone survived.

Kelly, who had been fasting and praying in the days before the hurricane, is convinced their survival was no coincidence.

“A God save wi,” she told The Gleaner.

Across the same Windsor community, 44-year-old hairdresser Keneisha McDonald sat among the shattered remains of her home, resting her back against a broken cabinet while her spouse, Joel Salon, and other men tried to patch what was left.

“Everything gone; stove gone, only the fridge left standing and the chest of drawers,” McDonald said, clutching her head. “We no have nowhere fi sleep right now. One a di pillow deh over deh yard deh. Mi can’t even go fi it right now.”

McDonald, who lives with her spouse, three children, and four nieces, said Melissa demolished their home despite all their efforts to prepare. “We batten down, put up sandbags, tie down di roof with cable – and still di whole place mash up,” she said.

The family had sought shelter at a neighbour’s house during the storm. When McDonald returned the next morning, the sight of her home left her in pain.

“From mi come see mi house, mi forehead start hurt mi,” she said quietly. “Mi just tek two pills.”

Her 69-year-old mother, Marcia Daley, also lost her home.

“Right now mi no have no weh fi sleep,” she said. “Mi stand up and see di zinc dem a fly inna di air. A di wickedest storm dis. It nuh have no mercy.”

Daley, who lived through Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, said she had never witnessed such devastation. “Dis worse dan Gilbert,” she declared.

Her daughter agreed. “This a di worst storm mi ever go through. First time mi ever see mi house blow down.”

Back at Kelly’s home, her 75-year-old mother, Cislyn Tulloch, recalled how even her husband had trembled and prayed as the winds roared.

“It bad, bad,” she said with a small laugh. “‘Cause mi have pressure, mi think mi did a go dead.”

Her teenage granddaughter, Keisha McKenzie, admitted she too felt death closing in.

“All a go through mi mind say mi a go dead,” she told The Gleaner.

“Den me see dis come off and say, wi done fa now,” she said, referring to the roof.

But even amid the wreckage, hope remains.

“Even if a just fi back ‘round di house with zinc, we haffi try,” McDonald said. “But we need more material fi rebuild. Most of di board and zinc gone.”

While touring the community, Member of Parliament Matthew Samuda visited both McDonald’s and Kelly’s homes, registering them for assistance and offering reassurance that help will come.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com