By Barrington M. Salmon
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – In the days following the slow and destructive path of Hurricane Melissa across section of Jamaica in late October, worldwide attention focused on the island’s recovery.
In the seven weeks since, the world has moved on to other issues and stories, but those Jamaicans most affected by the second strongest Atlantic hurricane on record are still struggling to stabilize lives upended by the tempest.
US-based healthcare executive Lana Walker’s parents were born and raised in Bunkers Hill, Trelawny, so as soon as they were able to, she and her husband Paul Salmon flew down to Jamaica with food, water, other essential supplies.
“We got there faster than the government did,” said Walker, whose parents are from the Bunkers Hill community in Trelawny and who still has brothers and family there. “We took cases of water, food, cots and other essentials. My people were born there. I was not born there, but I call it home …”
Walker said it was extremely difficult and deeply distressing to see the wreckage and remnants of once-vibrant communities, saying the landscape looked as if a bomb had gone off and laid whole places bare.
“I am tough, tough as nails and I have a reputation of being tough, but I could not help but cry. What I saw brought me to tears,” she said. “The videos were bad, but on the ground, houses were gone, light poles were down. Many of them were bent and barely hanging on. The road are bad, there’s no electricity and I witnessed people’s desperation.”
According to The Gleaner, Hurricane Melissa’s overall impact shows more than 170 communities across those six parishes were hit with flooding, landslides, and wind damage.
More than 156,000 homes were damaged with 24,000 counted as total losses, the Jamaica Information Service reported. Meanwhile, massive power outages affected hundreds of thousands of people with significant numbers of Jamaica still without power.
Businessman Donovan Haughton partnered with Walker to secure, repackage and distribute food and water and set up a makeshift food bank to offer assistance to residents of Bunkers Hill who are stranded, hungry and homeless since the hurricane slammed their community.
“It was easy to jump in even though I suffered a catastrophic event. We made videos and made appeal. Persons like Lana never held back. We have employed a rigorous application of this purposeful journey,” said Haughton, who said his home is completely destroyed. There is an old African adage, ‘It takes a village …”
Haughton said he grew up in a household with a single mom, recalling that Walker helped him when he was going to high school.
“My grandmother made me promise to go through the door and keep it open. Made a promise,” he said. “And anyway, being out was a coping mechanism.”
Haughton said he solicited help and donations from friends, family, schoolmates and others and used a friend’s house to receive goods where he and a crew
Walker and Haughton said people’s needs are desperate.
“The damage is absolutely horrendous and the need immense, especially for food and basic items,” said Walker.
Walker said she drove a Toyota Corolla and Paul, a Toyota minivan, both filled to capacity.
“We didn’t experience much traffic but roads from Wakefield are atrocious – potholes the size of craters.”
Walker said the couple delivered 10 cases of water, an assortment of food, sanitary pads, clothes, shoes, toiletries, underwear for people of all ages, mosquito repellent, flashlights, tarpaulin for the school, disposable urinal bags and much more.
“All of the items were distributed in less than 30 minutes,” she said. “I was able to arrange a delivery of 70 cots, blankets and care packages for 60 folks sleeping at the Community Center and others at the school. One could hear the despair in their voices and see it in their eyes.”
Haughton and Walker have also been working closely with Marilyn Walker Salmon, principal of Unity Primary School in Bunkers Hill.
But the Jamaica I know – really the south and western sections of the country – was savaged by Hurricane Melissa and her fierce 185-mile-per-hour winds which pummeled the country after the storm sat and hovered with devastating effect over my country. Pictures, videos and drone shots capture landscapes that look as if a huge bomb exploded.
Jamaica authorities say 50 people lost their lives as a direct result of the storm and storm related situations. The number could go higher because of water-borne illnesses, hunger and starvation. The devastation is trees uprooted and downed, shorn off, stripped bare or blown away; roofless structures looking forlorn, resembling frayed, tattered skeletons. Gnarled trees, tottering, are tired, grizzled warriors standing unsure after a ferocious battle.
Pictures and videos tell the story: everywhere, there are downed power lines, streetlights and telephone poles; homes, schools and businesses collapsed into themselves; debris from landslides, widespread flooding, rubble and debris piled up high or strewn across a ransacked landscape; pieces of zinc roofing and fencing is everywhere, as is the mud. Power lines lay across branches or on roads and objects of all kinds, sizes and shapes pepper roadways or are submerged in water of varying depths.
Some roads have been transformed into rivers. Drivers must also left trying to navigate enormous potholes and mounds of silt if the road is passable.
According to the BBC, the total costs of damage and economic loss to the island nation could surpass $22 billion.
Before the hurricane hit on Oct. 28, the news outlet said, the government expected Jamaica’s tourism industry to grow by 7 percent this winter season and was preparing to welcome an estimated 4.3 million visitors. Government and other officials are moving to clear debris and repair hotels and other tourist facilities located on the western half of the island in the hope of tapping into tourism dollars to help steady Jamaica’s economy.
Tourism is Jamaica’s main source of foreign exchange earnings, contributing a combined 30 percent to GDP directly and indirectly. The tourism industry employs about 175,000 people and is a major economic driver for other economic sectors including agriculture, utilities, construction, banking and finance.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness estimates Melissa’s damage to be almost $8 billion. Aid has been pouring into the country from countries, institutions and individuals for a recovery program that will take years.
According to the Latin America Center, Atlantic Council, “the destruction is so extensive that once the search-and-rescue efforts end and basic services such as water and electricity are restored, the damage to homes and infrastructure will exceed the capacity of any single government. Jamaica’s recovery will likely therefore depend on two important factors: innovative financing models that reduce investment risk and strong public-private partnershipsthat accelerate sustainable recovery.”
The Caribbean’s unique and small markets call for creative financing, but there are tools readily available to help US companies invest in infrastructure and the recovery process. Two options are especially relevant.
To reach the average of advanced economies by 2030, Jamaica would need significant investment, including $5.8 billion for new infrastructure and asset replacement in road infrastructure. It would also need more than $1.4 billion toward telecommunications infrastructure for fixed broadband and 4G networks to reach equivalent levels in developed economies. Second, public-private partnerships can help the Jamaican government and their partners meet urgent recovery needs while driving long-term, sustainable efforts. Launching public-private partnerships is one of the most effective ways to mobilize capital from local, regional, and private investors. Under these partnerships, governments provide needed guarantees and subsidies to reduce risk, while the private sector generates the capital needed to determine a project’s commercial viability.
As the government and international institutions work on recovery from the macro level, Walker, Haughton, Walker-Salmon and others will continue building support and resilience at the micro level.
“With no shelter, no jobs, no water, this is still a very desperate situation so we’ve teamed up to get relief for Christmas. We’re offering a little feel-good hope for the community,” Walker said. We’re going to cook food on Boxing Day (Dec 26) and kinda lift people’s spirits. We also want to raise money to buy zinc and tarpaulin because the zinc is twisted up. We’re planning a zinc movement because rain is still coming …”