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Francine Black, Gleaner Staff Reporter 

For the second time in three years, homes in Caribbean Terrace in East Kingston have been devastated by a major hurricane.

 

Photo by Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer: this young man tries to make his way across the debris dumped on to the streets of Caribbean Terrace in Harbour View by Hurricane Dean during its passage yesterday.

The seaside community was almost washed off the map by storm surges, some as high as 50 feet. Some residents are still traumatised and shocked by the devastation.

Resident Shara Barnett said she, her family and neighbours are just grateful for being alive: “When the water started coming we run out and went into the house across there (across the street) and when we in the house, the water just come in a storm surge of about 50 feet and there were about  20 adults and five children in the house.”

“When we look the children were swimming in the water. We had to burst through the back and put the children over the wall and run over the wall and start running. While we running everybody just asking weh wi a go, weh wi a go,” said Ms. Barnett.

Thankfully a man saw them running down the main road and took some of them into his house, while others were picked up by police patrolling the area and taken to shelters.

The echoes of people screaming when the water burst through their doors and windows still lingers in her mind. “We heard screaming, screaming and screaming and we were wondering what is causing that and when we look out is our neighbours that run out of them house and water running out behind them,” she said.

Pointing to a two-door Suzuki Swift that perched on the edge of a retaining wall, she said the water that came was extremely dangerous. “Some ( residents) said they saw the water drag the car and just slap it on the wall,” she said.

At other homes the devastation was much of the same. The hurricane broke metal grills, and dragged cars dragged out of drive ways and parked them on lawns or piles of rubble.

Many residents shovelled silt from their homes as they tried to restore some semblance of normalcy to their lives. One woman who had battened down her house and moved to safety, came home to find the door and gates ripped off and the furniture in a rubble. She could hardly express her feeling about the devastation choosing to just sipped some Red Stripe beer as she stared at her family members trying to clean up the property.

While an evacuation order was issued, many of the residents said they did not leave as they did not expect it to be this bad. “In ‘Ivan’ it was not so bad. The water did not come so far that time,” said Ms. Barnett.

In the meantime, the police continued to maintain a presence in the community to prevent looting.

About 17 houses were destroyed in the community  by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Last year Government decided to award $25.5 million to residents who had lost property in the storm as well as dredge the lower section of Hope River and creation of a buffer zone to prevent to minimise damage by future hurricane.

Feedback: francine.black@gleanerjm.com