TL;DR
-
Victims in Middle Quarters, including Vivienne Bennett, face severe injury and lack of basic necessities after Hurricane Melissa, with limited government aid reported.
-
Black River, deemed “ground zero,” suffers extensive destruction; survivors report a dire situation with blocked communications and looting amid a lack of immediate support.
-
The UK has pledged £7.5 million in aid, but logistical challenges hinder delivery to affected areas, escalating concerns as communications remain down.
‘Shell shock’ and an emotional reunion in ‘ground zero’ for Hurricane Melissa | World News
In the town of Middle Quarters, close to where Hurricane Melissa made landfall, Vivienne Bennett is sitting propped up against a house without a roof. Her right hand is wrapped in a kitchen towel.
“I lost my finger in the hurricane,” she says, showing me her finger which is exposed to the bone. “I opened the door of my house to try and escape, and the wind slammed it back and cut my finger off.”
She asks me for painkillers and says she doesn’t have any medication to stave off infection. I ask if she has seen any government aid. “No,” she replies, “we haven’t seen anybody yet, so we’re trying to get some help. I need to get to a hospital but I don’t know how because all the roads are blocked.”
Her daughter, Leila, has a baby and other children are playing nearby. “We have no nappies, we have no food, we have no water,” Leila says, “it feels like the wilderness here now.”
The death toll in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa could rise, with some communities still marooned from the rest of the island, according to the police chief for the worst-affected area.
“We are hoping there is no more,” he said. “The reality is we have not yet communicated with all our station commanders in some of the other areas and so as soon as we have those reports, we could be hearing of other injuries, other situations that we were not privy to at this moment.”
The UK has pledged £7.5m to assist the Caribbean’s recovery from the hurricane. Aid flights have been arriving over the past couple of days into Jamaica’s two international airports, but it’s not getting to where they need it the most.
The road to ground zero
The road leading to Black River, the town authorities are referring to as “ground zero” for this disaster, is difficult to pass, but not impossible. A journey from the capital, Kingston, that would usually take two hours, now takes six. We drive through murky floodwater, a couple of feet deep, and through an avenue of twisted bamboo stalks.
On arrival, it’s a desperate scene. People here seem almost shell-shocked, still processing what has happened to them, unsure what to do next. One man walks past our cameraman and holds his hands in the air.
“Jamaica needs help,” he says. “It’s been mashed up.” I ask what help he needs. “We need houses, food and water,” he replies.
Black River was once a wealthy town, the first in Jamaica to have electricity. But the storm has laid waste to the main street. The 300-year-old church, the seafront restaurant, the pharmacy, the Chinese supermarket, the whole town has been shredded.
A group of people sit at a bus stop on the seafront surrounded by huge rocks washed up by a 16-foot storm surge. “It’s a disaster, a disaster,” one woman calls out to me.
With communications still down across most of the island, people here have been unable to contact friends and family for five days now.
A woman called Inkiru Bernard, who is Jamaican but lives in New York, has been in touch with our team and asked us to try to find her 67-year-old mother, who lives in Black River. She’s not heard from her since the storm.
Daughter’s emotional reunion
When we arrive at the address she provides, her mother, Inez McRae, is sitting on the porch.
She shows me around what remains of the house where she weathered the storm. The roof is entirely gone, everything is sodden and thick with mud.
“But I’m alive,” she says, “I’ve been spared.”
When Inkiru finally sees her mother on a video call, she cries with relief. “Oh mummy,” she says, “I’ve been so worried.”
Tanks have been positioned on the main street in Black River and soldiers patrol it after shops and businesses were looted.
The police chief for this area, Coleridge Minto, says he understands the desperation but is urging people to be patient.
“We can appreciate that persons are trying to grab things,” he says, “persons are devastated, but we want to ensure that we maintain law.”
Army helicopters were flying over the disaster zone and some aid is now arriving into Black River. But with other villages still largely cut off from the rest of the island, this situation is growing more dire by the day.