Devastation and Despair

The aftermath of Hurricane Beryl – the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic – left a stark and unmistakable trail of destruction across Jamaica’s south central coast.

The storm brushed the south coast of Jamaica as a Category 4 system on Wednesday. Communities in Clarendon, Manchester, St Elizabeth and Westmoreland bore the brunt of the storm’s fury, with uprooted trees, lost roofs, and obliterated structures as common sights.

Among the hardest-hit aspects of the storm’s devastation was the power supply system, which residents, from Farquhar Beach in Clarendon, to Cocoa Walk in Manchester, identified as their most pressing concern. The loss of power severely disrupted communication, leaving many cut off from relatives both within Jamaica and overseas.

“I have not been able to speak with my children who live in another part of Manchester, or the children of the lady whose house I live in, who are overseas,” said Gary Goodwin, of Resource, Manchester.

“You have to go to Mandeville or somewhere with a signal to make a call, but I haven’t been able to leave here.”

The five-bedroom house where Goodwin served as caretaker had its roof torn off by the storm’s violent winds, leaving a waterlogged interior.

scene of chaos

Goodwin and a companion attempted to salvage what they could, including a king-sized mattress they had put out to dry. Inside, the house was a scene of chaos, with water damage causing ceilings to collapse.

“I did not wait until the entire roof blew off. Once I heard the rumblings, I left the house and ran to the old building in front. That’s where I’ve been staying. I couldn’t save anything,” Goodwin recounted, surrounded by curious children who are on summer holidays.

The Sunday Gleaner team observed the widespread destruction of older and poorly constructed buildings, as well as extensive crop damage in farming communities. Houses made of plyboard and wooden posts were no match for regular breeze, much more a ferocious storm. Crops in the farming communities were badly damaged by the heavy winds and torrential rain.

Also in Resource, schoolteacher Keneisha Edwards recounted losing half her roof, forcing her family to shelter in the intact part of the house. Andre Edwards reported similar losses for his mother’s home in Grove Town, which now housed 10 displaced persons.

Residents expressed frustration at the lack of response from officials.

“You are the first people we have seen since Wednesday. No MP, no councillor, nobody has come. See what you can do to help us,” they implored.

In Pratville, Manchester, Tameka Swaby Johnson, principal of Pratville Primary and Infant School, surveyed the extensive damage at the institution. There was extensive damage to covering of the passageway which connected two blocks at the school. A guinep tree in the schoolyard was beaten down, its premature fruits littering the ground.

Cell towers at the school school’s ground offered intermittent signals, a brief reprieve in an otherwise disconnected area. Without electricity, generators were of little help, and the prospect of restoring power seemed distant.

grim expectations

Downed light posts and tilted poles dotted the landscape from Toll Gate in Clarendon through Farquhar Bay to the communities of Asia, Victoria Town, Warwick, Pratville, Marlie Hill, Smithfield, and Pusey Hill. Residents expressed grim expectations for the restoration of electricity.

“Under normal circumstances light goes away down here sometimes for an entire day. This is when you don’t have anything going on. It will go for a day, come back for a few hours and then gone sometimes for days. So I am looking for this to come back any time soon. We will be lucky if we get this back before Christmas,” said a resident of Restore, near New Broughton.

The Jamaica Public Service (JPS), the sole light and power provider on the island, said that as of Saturday morning, about 62 per cent of its customers had electricity as a result of the company’s restoration efforts.

Blaine Jarret, JPS’s senior vice president of energy delivery, said the company was “making every effort to accelerate the restoration of service to those still without”.

“We understand that our customers are anxious for service to be restored immediately after the passage of the hurricane, and we remain committed to doing everything to get the lights back on as quickly and as safely as possible,” Jarret said.

And while residents of these battered communities pray for the restoration of their electricity and telecommunication systems, fisherfolk on the coastline are counting their losses and wondering how they will manage to rebound.

Jerome Small, a fisherman at Farquhar Bay, said he has lost nearly 200 pots at sea.

“If the government can assist me with even one deep freezer, I would appreciate it. But without electricity, even a deep freezer is useless,” Small lamented.

He and other fishermen were reconstructing their shops on the beach, where they sold their catches. The cost of replacing lost pots was staggering, with Small alone estimating his losses at approximately $2.2 million.

“You see the coils that is what makes the fish pots. One roll costs $26,000. I can get five pots from that roll, but I have to pay more money for each pot. At the end of the day, each pot will cost about $15,000. Earlier in the year we had a system and I lost pots. Between the two systems I lost about 150 pots since the start of the year. I lost 40 in this system. Multiply that by $15,000 and you see the cost! Right now mi not even a think bout it,” he said.

Leroy Powell said he lost 25 pots. Orlando Henry lost 30 pots, Sophia Reid, 30, and Floyd McLean, 20. They are pleading for any assistance in kind, or cash.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com