It may take officials a while for the true picture of yesterday’s devastation caused by the passing of tropical storm Tomas to be fully assessed.
But for a number of residents living in sections of St Andrew andSt Joseph, the story was one of immediate horror and despair.
When the SUNDAY SUN team managed to elude the many fallen utility lines, trees, roofs and several galvanized sheets lying in the roads, what greeted them were a number of families that had lost their homes and in some cases all of their possessions.
Tyrone Holder and Hartley Jemmott, of Union Road, Sugar Hill, St Joseph, worked manfully during the day to remove a large breadfruit tree that blocked their only exit.
Further down the street a breadfruit tree actually fell onto the top of a house. In Braggs Hill, the sight of Curtis O’neal’s severely damaged house told a story of the devastation that engulfed some residents in that community.
Over in Parks Road the story was the same with missing roofs and galvanised sheets, in some instances, hanging precariously from the power lines.
One of the hardest hit houses in Chalky Mount, St Andrew, belonged to Beverley Bynoe.
Bynoe spoke of being awakened by her son around 4 a.m. with the news that their roof was shaking.
“When I got up the galvanise sheets started to rattle and then eventually the roof lift off. We then had to run next door by my cousin about six o’clock to seek shelter from
the rain and strong winds. Everything has been pretty much destroyed,” she said, adding the house which was home to seven of them was uninsured.
“I don’t know how we will bounce back from this.”
In Parks Road, St Joseph, Leroy Greene and his family were among the unfortunate ones to lose roof and possessions to Tomas. Greene told the SUNDAY SUN team that it was approximately 6:45 a.m. and he felt that they had passed the worst.
But then a huge gust of wind came and removed the roof of his house, forcing him, his wife and daughter to seek shelter next-door. The roof was not found and all their possessions were destroyed.
Alicia Small, her fiancé and five children of Parks Road, were among those losing everything.
She said it was in the early hours of yesterday morning that the galvanised paling started to flap and lift up. They also felt the house rocking in the strong winds. Eventually it moved off the props.
“My boyfriend’s uncle who lives next-door told us to come over. Soon after that the roof was ripped off exposing all of our possessions to the elements. The only thing we saved was the television,” she said.
Small, with tears in her eyes, said she was unemployed but that her fiancé was self-employed.
“All my children’s school supplies are destroyed and I really don’t know how we will begin to build back,” she said.
Darnley Blackett probably thought his day could get no worse after the wind damaged the roof of his Chalky Mount, St Andrew home. But he was wrong.
After going onto the roof and fixing the problem, while descending the ladder he fell and dislocated his right shoulder. He remained at home in pain since there was no one to take him to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital [QEH] and he had no means of private or public transportation.
When the SUNDAY SUN team visited him and learnt of his plight, they cut short their tour of duty and took him to the QEH.
