THE roofs of several shelters in Manchester were Sunday night demolished by the 145 mile per hour winds from Hurricane Dean, but up to 200 people remained in shelters up to late morning today.

Some of the areas where the hurricane struck hardest were in South Manchester, where 20 families who were sheltering at the Marley Hill Primary and Junior High School in Cross Keys had to seek refuge elsewhere as the roof blew off, leaving them exposed to Dean.

Disaster co-ordinator for the parish, Claudia Coley, said Manchester experienced extensive wind damage and some amount of flooding. Also, some electricity poles had been downed. Coley said her team would be concentrating on distributing relief supplies today.

“Basically, we’re trying to get people comfortable, then think about recovery,” Coley said.

The roof of the New Green Primary and Junior High School in the northern section of the parish, which was a shelter, was also damaged.

In addition, the parish council building in the parish capital, Mandeville, where the emergency team was based, also suffered some roof damage.

An estimated 200 people in the communities surrounding or close to Plowden, Cocoa Walk, Cross Keys and Salmon Town in South Manchester were forced to leave their damaged homes. Coley said a number of farms in South Manchester were also damaged.

In the town of Mandeville, Coley said the Roads and Works Department of the parish council was this morning busy clearing the streets of debris and persons were coming into the parish council to request assistance.

Up to mid-morning, however, Coley said she had been unable to contact shelter managers in the New Forest area, which had taken a beating from Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

In neighbouring St Elizabeth, there was a report that the top floor of the Malvern Police Station had been completely destroyed.