WESTERN BUREAU:
Six months after Hurricane Melissa, residents of Westgreen and Catherine Hall remain gripped by fear, fleeing at the first sign of rain as trauma persists and recovery challenges continue to undermine confidence.
For some, returning home is still not an option. For others, staying has come at a cost.
Pamella Findlay is among those yet to move back, citing not only ongoing uncertainty about the safety of the area, but the fact that it has taken her months to repair the devastating damage to her home.
“There is apprehension… because of the uncertainty,” she admitted to The Gleaner.
That fear remains deeply embedded.
Westgreen and Catherine Hall were declared “ground zero” in St James in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, which unleashed unprecedented flooding across sections of Montego Bay, submerging homes, sweeping away vehicles, and leaving communities buried under thick layers of mud and debris. Entire streets were rendered unrecognisable, with hundreds of residents displaced and basic services disrupted for weeks.
Just weeks ago, rising waters in a nearby area triggered panic, sending residents fleeing once again.
President of the Community Development Committee (CDC) in Westgreen, C. Maxwell Holness, said the trauma is far from over.
“That’s a nightmare … . You would not believe the amount of people fleeing the community,” he said. “They’re still reliving what they went through.”
Holness estimates that as many as 70 per cent of residents remain affected, many still without the means to fully recover.
“You pass persons right now, everything looks normal outside, but there’s nothing in their house,” he said.
In Catherine Hall, the fallout extends to livelihoods. A business operator near the stadium said recurring flooding has driven customers away.
“There’s no one visiting our business. Nobody can really drive in when the water is there,” the operator said.
“I’m not doing half of what I was doing before the hurricane.”
Even community leaders admit the psychological impact remains.
“Even me. I get traumatised when the river looks [in spate],” Holness said.
Municipal Councillor Dwight ‘Debo’ Crawford said the reaction is widespread.
“The minute rain starts to fall, everybody starts to look out,” Crawford said, noting that residents remain on edge. “Even me, I have a bit of trauma when rain starts to fall, even though I don’t reside in the area.”
He added that rebuilding confidence will take time.
“It’s going to take some time for them to feel comfortable again.”
Crawford acknowledged that, in some cases, residents may have to prioritise safety over staying.
“Sometimes you have to evacuate … . If you try to resist it, you might end up losing your life,” he said.
Mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon, who spent close to two months working in the area, said the disaster affected an estimated 4,000 residents, with significant damage to homes and infrastructure.
He noted that while emergency clean-up efforts restored access, flooding remains a concern due to drainage and siltation issues. Vernon said full recovery will require major investment, with overall costs, including personal losses, likely running into billions of dollars.
He added that the municipality is now focusing on adaptation measures, including a proposed early warning system to give residents advance notice of flooding.
“We do not have the financial bandwidth to deal with mitigation at the level it needs,” he said.
But residents say warnings are not enough and Holness argued that local knowledge has been ignored in mitigation efforts.
“We wrote letters, but nobody is paying the residents any mind,” he said.
janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com
