Mayor Leading Rebuilding Work at Hurricane Melissa's Ground Zero
The local leader of Black River – a community referred to as “ground zero” for Hurricane Melissa – has shared the immense flooding and widespread destruction caused by the disaster.
Reflecting on the harrowing ordeal, Richard Solomon recalled riding out the intense hurricane at an emergency operating centre.
“The entire town of this area is devastated,” he said. “The destruction is so severe that the prime minister classified this area as ground zero.”
Five individuals from the town are reported dead, but Solomon noted hearing reports of additional deaths that are still being verified due to communication and transportation difficulties.
“Storm Melissa came around 8 a.m. and continued for around nine hours, during which we were battered with strong gusts and torrential rainfall,” he explained.
“We experienced up to 4.8 metres of water at the emergency operating centre. That was a bit scary for us, and we were hoping that it would not increase any further, because we were on the upper level, and frankly, when we saw the water rising, it was a scary experience for us.”
The mayor explained that the town, situated in the hard-hit south-western parish of St Elizabeth, is without water and electricity, and the majority of structures have had their roofs. An authority previously characterized the town as flooded, with more than 500,000 residents lacking electricity. A landslide has blocked the main roads of a nearby area, where roadways have been reduced to muddy tracks. Locals are now sweeping water from their houses and attempting to salvage their possessions.
Rescue efforts and damage assessments have proven extremely difficult because all the town’s vehicles and essential facilities such as firefighting, police, hospitals and grocery stores were “immensely damaged,” says the mayor.
He is now concentrating on working to help the most vulnerable, while also coping with the individual toll of the disaster.
“The mayor's car was completely submerged by water. My roof went, so I do understand the suffering that people are feeling, but what is a key focus for me now is to concentrate on getting aid relief for the most at-risk at this time,” he says.
Solomon estimates that it will take billions of Jamaican dollars to rebuild Black River after the hurricane's annihilation. For now, he states, the priority is removing debris from blocked routes, which have isolated the town.
“We are now trying to clear the major thoroughfares and secondary routes here so that we can deliver relief supplies in. The majority of our supermarkets, if not all, were impacted negatively so they won’t be able to offer goods to persons who are in need at this moment,” he says.
The prime minister has witnessed the devastation first-hand, with an flyover of the area revealing 80 to 90% of roofs in the area had been destroyed.
“This will be a enormous task to rebuild this historic town. But although it is damaged, we can envision a future of it rising more resilient and improved,” he told reporters.
“We will get it done. So keep the positive outlook, remain hopeful, and we will overcome this challenge, and we will rebuild better,” he affirmed.
