SEVERAL of the people who left their homes to stay at public shelters in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, said they were fearful that Hurricane Dean would severely damage their homes.

By noon Sunday there were about 105 people at the National Arena, which has the capacity to facilitate up to 500 people.

Shelter manager, Pearline Maxfield, told the Observer that persons had come from as far as Bull Bay, while a number of them were evacuated from the Mountain View area, a volatile community in the city’s eastern end.

“Some persons came in from Saturday. One or two persons came with their sheets and so on,” Maxfield said, adding that most of the evacuees had not brought any food and had begun to complain about being hungry.

The evacuees lined the walls of the Arena with their bed and belongings, while children played innocently in the centre of the building.

“My house not strong and me have a pole light post inna me yard and me nuh know if it a go drop down,” said an elderly woman, who gave her name as Eliza Rodriquez.

“When Ivan (Hurricane) come it did blow off me roof so me nuh tek now chances,” said Rodriquez as she lay on a mattress on the ground while she listened to the radio. She told the Observer that she was concerned for her health because she had no medication, even though she suffered from diabetes, hypertension and glaucoma.

“Me nuh have no medication wid me,” she said.

Another woman told the Observer that she decided to leave her home in Mountain View Sunday morning because her roof, which was also damaged during the onslaught of Hurricane Ivan almost three years ago, had not been repaired.

“I didn’t want to take any chances so I packed up a few things with my two kids and came here,” she said.

Another shelter located at the Edith Dalton James High School in the Kingston 20 area housed 20 people in about four classrooms.

Shelter manager, Carolyn Evans, said they had adequate beds and medical supplies, however, they too were waiting on food.

One woman who refused to give her name said she evacuated to the shelter with her six children from Riverside Drive in Duhaney Park because her house was flooded out during the passage of Hurricane Ivan.

“We had some flooding, but it was not very bad,” she said. “I am not worried, but I just don’t like being here (at the shelter), because when Ivan did come me did have to stay here for two days.”

Meantime, 24-year-old Ricardo Jennings who lives in New Haven, a flood-prone area, said she decided to leave her home before the waters rose.

“It not flooded like during Ivan, but I saw it reaching to that level so I came up here and I took a few of my belongings,” he said.