‘Nine hours of hell’

PORTLAND:

“Nine hours of hell” is how one Portland resident described the ferocious onslaught during the passage of Hurricane Beryl on Wednesday.

Cyrus Bell, a 69-year-old resident of Bryan’s Bay, referred to the gusty winds from Beryl as being devilish and stronger than Hurricane Gilbert, which ravaged Jamaica on September 12, 1988.

He blurted out during an interview with The Gleaner that Hurricane Beryl “is the wickedest thing”.

“Mi say mi never know mi did a mek it. A from bout 9:30 inna di morning di breeze start, and it nuh stop till about after 6:30 p.m.,” commented Bell.

“Mi say mi rooftop just a go up and down all di time di breeze a blow. Den if we did get di full force, all a wi dead,” he added, referring to the system verring slight southward and falling to Category 4 as it passed the island.

“Bwoy, God good because a Him protect me and di house. All a di breadfruit, ackee, and mango dem blow off. ... A di fuss mi pray so. One a di time when di breeze get heavy, mi plan fi go hide unda di bed,” he said.

Shieann Neysmith, Yvette Thompson, and George Washington of Stony Hill, Drapers, and Norwich, respectively, gave similar accounts of their experience.

On Thursday, vehicles with heavy-duty equipment were out in numbers in across the parish, clearing roadways that were blocked by downed trees, fallen utility poles, landslides, sand, and other debris, with work crews primarily targeting the main thoroughfares.

Some of the worst affected areas were from Dolphin Bay leading up to Hectors River, a distance of approximately 26 miles in East Portland, and from Passley Gardens to Buff Bay, approximately 18 miles in West Portland. Sections of both thoroughfares have since been reduced to single-lane traffic.

In the meantime, Councillor Orton Manahan, told The Gleaner on Thursday that several communities in his Hope Bay Division were impacted, resulting in downed trees and broken utility poles, which hindered free movement.

“I don’t know when some of these communities will get back electrical power. There are a lot of broken JPS (Jamaica Public Service) poles, including concrete poles that are on the ground in several communities,” said Manahan.

“Chepstowe, New Eden, Skibo, Bybrook, Bloomfield ... – all these communities have been impacted. Downed trees, utility poles, those are the main damage affecting those communities. We have managed to clear most of those areas, and they are now able to accommodate single-lane traffic,”he added.

It is estimated that damage to farmlands and livestock, although not yet assessed, could run into hundreds of millions of dollars given the terrible state of banana farms, especially in the upper Rio Grande Valley, Long Bay, Long Road, Passley Gardens, Golden Vale, Toms Hope, St Margaret’s Bay, the Buff Bay Valley, and Hart Hill.

gareth.davis@gleanerjm.com