People of Jamaican coastal town described as storm’s ground zero are traumatised and desperate for help
People of Jamaican coastal town described as storm’s ground zero are traumatised and desperate for help
It is a treacherous journey to Black River, a coastal town in Jamaica’s southwestern parish of St Elizabeth, which this week bore the brunt of Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.
Uprooted trees and lamp-posts, rubble from landslides, huge potholes and miles of thick, slippery silt from severe flooding have turned the route into a dangerous obstacle course. But most daunting is the water that you encounter as you pass through communities that overnight have become rivers.
The difficult conditions meant chaos on the roads to Black River on Thursday with vehicles stalling in the water and police and army personnel trying to manage long lines of slow-moving traffic in both directions. And along the way is mind-boggling destruction to buildings and homes, some of which were gutted or packed with debris.
As you get closer to Black River, which has been described as ground zero for the category 5 hurricane’s impact, it becomes clear that almost every house and building has lost its roof. The town centre has been annihilated and now resembles a demolition site.
Among the crumpled buildings and streets filled with zinc sheets from roofs and other dangerous debris are people traumatised, bewildered, grieving and desperate for help. Families with children who appear to be setting up residence in a bus shelter and others scouring the debris for food are indications of an unfolding humanitarian crisis.
Some had come to Black River, the parish capital, from nearby devastated areas hoping to find aid, only to discover a scene of utter devastation.
Speaking through tears, Beverly Stephens, who survived the storm with her son and elderly mother who is unable to walk, asked the Guardian to “tell the world that Jamaica needs help”. Having sought refuge in a room that had a reinforced roof, she said, she and her son spent three hours holding a door that the wind seemed intent on ripping off.
The death toll from the storm, which hit Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic hardest, is thought to be 50 – 19 in Jamaica and 31 in Haiti – and is expected to rise.
