THE devastation caused by Hurricane Dean along several coastline communities in Portland and St Thomas on Sunday began to emerge yesterday as residents began to assess the damage to their flattened houses and small business establishments that were smashed by storm surges associated with the powerful storm.

To the hundreds of affected families, Dean was the worst hurricane they had ever experienced. They said waves, as high as 10 feet, "came out of nowhere" and took everything in their path, regardless of size, depositing them elsewhere or simply taking them out to sea.

"I think we had a small tsunami or a tidal wave because we have never ever seen such big waves with any of the other hurricanes," said Dwight Burnett, a resident of Manchioneal in Portland.

Manchioneal residents pointed to a large container which the waves took from its stand and deposited against a business place across the street.

Muddy television sets and refrigerators were scattered all about the coastal town, while some residents pointed to where they once called home. For some, the flooring was the only reminder of the spot where their houses stood.
Category four Hurricane Dean sideswiped Jamaica's south coast Sunday night with maximum sustained winds of near 240 kmh (150 mph).

A woman with her eight children said all she could locate were a few pieces of their clothes which she was trying to get clean. "Everything else gone," she said.

Also in Manchioneal, the courthouse situated on the first floor of the police station was wrecked. Inside, debris of all description was piled high amidst broken furniture.
Constable Royand Brown said in order to clear a path from the station to allow access, a truck had to be used to remove 16 loads of debris.

Big chunks of the road in Manchioneal were washed out to sea, leaving gaping holes which now pose a big danger to unknowing motorists.
At Bamboo and Logan lanes in Duhaney Pen, St Thomas, residents could not even begin the clean-up process as there was nothing to recover. Dean took everything.

"Even though we have been flooded out before the water has never come this high," said a man who identified himself as Junior. His entire woodwork shop had been washed away and the remainder of his house leaned dangerously to one side. "I lost everything," he said in despair.
Wayne Kesto, another resident, was adamant that he would never return to the seafront community to live, even though he had been born there.

"Me not coming back down here to live, me have to find somewhere else, but me not going through this experience again," he said.

Pointing to the foundation of about eight houses which had washed out to sea and those severely damaged but still standing, Kesto said it was a miracle that no lives were lost.
He said a number of people had heeded the warning to evacuate, locked up their homes and left for higher ground. However, some persons closer to the main road, thinking they were relatively safe, battened down and decided to ride out the storm.

However, when the waves came, Kesto said those people had to run for their lives, leaving everything behind. "It was the largest waves we have ever seen," said Kesto, a fisherman.

But even as a few residents attempted to shovel several wheelbarrows filled with debris from what was spared of their homes, they lamented that they were yet to see representatives from any of the relief agencies.
When the Observer visited the office of the St Thomas Parish Disaster Committee, the co-ordinator, Millicent Blake, said they had not yet been out to the communities but would be doing so later in the day.

"The teams are being dispatched today (yesterday) to do the assessment and then we will be able to take it from there," she said. The reports of devastation, she said, were similar in communities like Danvers, Rozelle and White Horses.

But the residents took little comfort when the information was relayed by the Observer, saying it was not good enough.
"We have children, and a lot of people don't even have a mattress to sleep on or even tarpaulin over their heads, and all a now we don't even see one of them fi come offer a little food after we lost everything," said one man.

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