‘Everybody farm mash up’
St Bess residents believe Beryl was a triple whammy of tempest, tornado and earthquake
Published:Tuesday | July 23, 2024 | 12:09 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Residents in sections of St Elizabeth feel that Jamaica at large has yet to comprehend the magnitude of Beryl’s devastation. They describe the July 3 storm as a blend of hurricane, tornado, and earthquake, which severely damaged homes and farms in the southwest of the island.
“Ordinary breeze nah blow a container. A water drum from yah so go down there so. It lift up the water drum – a 4,000-gallon metal drum. Even though it never full, but it lift it, carry it way, way pass da house ya go down ... and drop it across the other side a road,” one Southfield resident told The Gleaner last week as he reflected on the powerful Category-4 system.
“It come with rain, tornado and earthquake ‘cause people in a dem house and wall a shake. A nuh nothing normal,” the resident said.
He added that it would cost his family $2 million to fix the roof of their home in Southfield.
Several buildings across the parish suffered extensive roof damage during the hurricane. Many remained without roofing when The Gleaner visited the parish last week.
Added to that, residents expressed continued frustration about the lack of electricity and potable water in many areas.
In Flagaman, a largely farming community, the farmers were still tallying their losses as several acres of papayas, onion, cantaloupe and watermelon fields were destroyed.
“The farm mash up. All my onion dem burn like somebody throw Gramoxone pon dem,” farmer Conrod Lloyd said, referring to a popular herbicide.
“Cantaloupe, all the grass itself burn,” he continued, detailing the devastation.
Lloyd, who returned to Jamaica from England a few years ago and began to till the soil, said the scale of the loss is staggering.
“This is about four squares. Is $7,000 for a pack of cantaloupe seed, and you can count how much come in it, and as it ready to pick, the storm come. Just as we ready to pick, but we can’t give up. We just affi continue. A di wickedest hurricane this,” he lamented.
He showed The Gleaner the now-famous water tank on the lips of everyone in the area, saying that it landed in a nearby shop front before it “flew” and crashed near his farm.
“It coulda drop in a house and kill off people,” Lloyd said.
Still lamenting the devastation to his field, he is contemplating refraining from investing in the current crop, opting instead to diversify into another venture.
Lloyd said plans to expand his farm have been shelved.
“I can’t extend it. Where di money a go come from? It (Beryl) batter everything. After the storm and you come here, it look like you burn it. ... What I plan to do is spread some grass on it and burn this and plant melon through it, Lloyd said.
He said that most of the cantaloupes were blown away by the hurricane and the fruits left are not suitable for the market.
“I don’t even get a sale out of it yet. The bugs dem damage dem as soon as dem ripe. If you don’t get them sell, from dem bore, the higgler dem won’t buy,” he said, adding, “I cannot make this discourage me.”
ACTIONS WANTING
Lloyd said that Agriculture Minister Floyd Green, who is the member of parliament (MP) for St Elizabeth South Western, is touching the important points in post-hurricane speeches but his actions are wanting.
“Him talk the right thing, but him not doing the right thing. Him talk it and no action, so it don’t make sense him talk it and no action. We want action. We need action in Flagaman and I mean now. We a cry; people a cry. Everybody farm mash up. Up to now, we don’t even see Floyd Green,” Lloyd said, exactly two weeks after Beryl.
He noted that officers from the Rural Agricultural Development Authority visited the area last Wednesday and noted the farmers who lost black drums in the hurricane.
“But we need to see our representative; we need to see we MP. That’s the man we need to see. ... We going three weeks now and the MP don’t say nothing. A you we vote for; the people vote for you. From the next day, you should be in the area a walk,” Lloyd said.
In the House of Representatives last Tuesday, Green said that estimated losses in the local agricultural sector post-Hurricane Beryl have surged to $4.73 billion, with more than 48,000 farmers affected.
Initially, he had placed the preliminary tally at $1 billion.
Green said that following further assessment, it was discovered that more than 323,000 animals across the island were lost, including small ruminants, poultry and cattle.
The agriculture minister also said the Government’s immediate response is to provide $700 million to aid in recovery efforts, noting that the nation’s farmers have suffered a devastating blow.
Another farmer in Flagaman, ‘Miss Audrey’, said she needs two things to get back on track: water and buyers.
She is imploring the decision-makers to pay attention to those two things in order for the farmers to get back on their feet.
“Dem a give people care package, yes, but St Elizabeth people can live off what they grow. We need water and electricity and when we have those, the buyers will come,” she told The Gleaner, standing beside her verandah filled with watermelons.