Dire straits

One household. Eighteen mouths, including those of eight children to feed; and a Jamaica Public Service (JPS) electricity bill for some $37,000 after the passage of Hurricane Beryl. Then there are the back-to-school expenses that must be met – thankfully, in an extended two weeks.

Their obligations are many, yet residents at one location in the hard-pressed Manchioneal fishing community in Portland laughed in the face of their predicament last Thursday, striking off lower-priority items from their to-do lists.

For the most part, their livelihoods have been in shambles since the passing of the Category 4 hurricane in early July. Despite their best efforts, some obligations will have to be placed on the “back burner” – the electricity bill chief among them.

Although even more pressing, the back-to-school expenses will also have to take a secondary spot against their daily struggle to find food, medication, and sanitary supplies for themselves and an ailing 73-year-old who is bedridden and unable to attend to herself.

“So JPS have to go wait! Because I don’t know when dat a go pay!” one female resident said boldly, laughing in bewilderment as she displayed the bill on her phone. “Where me going to find that and give them? You tell me!”

Their stories are similar to those of residents from the Buff Bay and Orange Bay fishing villages, also in Portland. But Manchioneal, it seemed, was the hardest hit, and for the fisherfolk, their losses can be counted in fish pots – structures made from sticks and mesh that are used to lure and catch fish.

‘REALLY ROUGH’

While fisherfolk in Buff and Orange bays numbered their lost fish pots in the dozens, those in Manchioneal spoke of losing hundreds, some of which have still not been replaced, almost two months after the storm.

“Trust me, it is really rough. We a talk ‘bout man lost all 100, 200 fish pot one time in di storm. None a dem can’t find back, so them have to build back over them there,” bemoaned Kenneth Minott, one of the few fishermen in the Manchioneal home.

Minott must not only finance his own children’s back-to-school preparations but also those of his siblings, among them Dimetris Powell, whose one-bedroom home was completely flattened by the storm, resulting in what she described as a hellish stay at a nearby shelter. Still, after moving in with relatives, her house has not been repaired; and without a job, gambling has provided some income.

“Call it that me lose about $500,000 worth of equipment and fish to the storm. Me lose bout 48 fish pots, nets, lines. A whole heap of lobster, fish, conch spoil in my fridge because the electricity go away,” offered Robert Richards, a father from another household, explaining that based on the distance and depth at sea where the pots are placed, it wouldn’t have made sense for him to try and save them before the storm hit.

“We fish 40-odd miles from here so. So if you make one trip go out there and come back, it don’t make sense because if you go back, you are going into the storm. So dem done out there already, so you have to just hope it (storm) don’t come,” he said, explaining that it would have taken more than a week to retrieve all his equipment.

One trip to and back from where the pots are can run him $30,000 in gas; and he will need another $20,000 for food, ice and bait. So far, he has been able to remake 15 fish pots, but he explained that the quantity of fish being caught and the number of customers turning up to buy them has fallen. This drop in income is also affecting his ability to get his 16-year-old son ready for the new school year.

NOTHING PURCHASED

“Not even uniform don’t buy yet. No book don’t buy yet. The only thing he has [are] shoes, bag, and some exercise books cause me sister send them from foreign,” he said last Thursday, noting that – like his 69-year-old fishing colleague Sylvester Roberts who also has one child – he is elated that authorities at Happy Grove High School in the parish have opted to push back the start of the new school year.

Last week, representatives at the constituency office of Daryl Vaz, member of parliament (MP) for Portland Western, distributed back-to-school vouchers to needy parents. Residents said Vaz’s wife, Ann-Marie, who is the MP for the neighbouring Portland Eastern, and her affiliates were also distributing vouchers in that constituency.

But among some of the complaints last week were the transportation costs to collect the vouchers, which were said to be as high as the vouchers’ value themselves. Additionally, the requirement to first register and then be served according to their registration time caused frustration. This was evident among two parents who showed up for vouchers outside Daryl Vaz’s constituency office.

Aside from the distribution of back-to-school vouchers, minimal rebuilding aid, and documentation of losses, residents have reported a lack of substantial assistance, particularly from the National Fisheries Authority.

At minimum, the residents of the Manchioneal fishing village are asking for a garbage truck to remove storm debris stacked in high piles on the beach. They say they try to lessen the heaps by burning them, admittedly causing added pollution and health risks.

According to the fisherfolk, Hurricane Beryl displaced much of the aquatic vegetation closer to the shoreline that the fish would normally either make their home or consume. As a result, the fishermen have had to venture further and deeper out at sea, and have also risked diving for longer, which could lead to the dreaded ‘bends’.

Formally known as decompression sickness, ‘bends’ occurs when dissolved gases, commonly nitrogen form bubbles in the bloodstream and tissue. This could lead to blindness, paralysis and even death.

“And this is the time that them things there mostly happen, you know, because a man is going to try to dive as long as he can to make sure him find something for back-to-school,” charged Michael Williams, a fisherman from Buff Bay, who said he lost more than seven pots and a slew of equipment to Hurricane Beryl.

So, too, did his colleague, Trevano Blake, who said he has had to team up with other fishermen to make ends meet.

“Trust me, it has been rough, a great setback, because see all the grandchildren them that I used to support for back-to-school, ... right now, things are kind of tight,” he bemoaned, explaining that rebuilding two pots could easily cost up to $30,000.

Paul Gutzmore, a fisherman and farmer in Orange Bay, is cognisant that despite the misfortunes that have hammered his life, his bills – primarily those surrounding his children’s education – must be met. So he had branched off into farming and other skills to make ends meet. But Beryl was impartial.

“Me lose 14 pear tree, eight breadfruit tree. Banana and plantain gone,” relayed Gutzmore. “But I have to try my best. So I go Spring Garden go plant little cassava, and that is how I get a little food. And me have little coconut a bush, so I go and try with them.”

Gutzmore has two children, ages 16 and 17, and said that with the help of relatives, he has managed to meet all of his children’s back-to-school needs.

“Me buy everything, man, because me a real worker; me plant melon, everything. The plantain trees will take a little time to come back up; but you know, the breadfruit not coming back for now,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com