THEY never saw it coming.

In one fated swipe Tropical Storm Gustav stole the livelihood of 460 workers employed to the Eastern Banana Estate in St Thomas. News of the loss of their jobs was unexpected, just like the sneaky storm and left them floundering in its wake.

The 2,300-acre banana plantation which supplied bananas for export and local banana trade from its base in Golden Grove, St Thomas is now a shadow of its former self. Once the largest employer in the parish, drawing persons from Duckenfield, Port Morant, Portland, Airy Castle, Alton Court, Bath, Morant Bay and elsewhere, it is now eerily quiet. The once bustling packing house abandoned, reduced to a shelter for idle machinery. No whistling, no sun glinting from the blades of sharpened machetes.

In the nearby Golden Grove District, at least 40 workers in the immediate area had made the daily treck to the estate to sustain their families and put bread on the table.

When the estate owned by Jamaica Producers Group Limited closed a week ago, a door to their future also clanged shut.

The workers who told the Sunday Observer that they were used to rebuilding after being buffeted by hurricanes in the past, had initially thought it would be the same this time around.

“It hard you know. I can’t even tell you how I feel because I had been working there for ten years – and all those hurricane seasons. Hurricanes came and take it down, and we worked and we built it back,” said 41-year-old Georgia Williams, who has lived in Golden Grove all her life.

“Last year, now, when the hurricane blow, mi cry because it was so hard and I still go and work. And we work to a mention that wi bring it up back, and when mi hear that we were going to get a next storm the other day mi cry to see that we reach so far and it going down back again. Sometimes condition was bad and they would pay like $86 a acre, and we still work with it. But them seh what is to be, have to be; we couldn’t stop it,” she said sadly.

The mother of four said the economic outlook is bleak, as her partner is also facing redundancy from his company.

“Two of the kids still in school and it is hard; sometimes I can’t even find it based on conditions. Mi a tell yuh seh Eastern helped us a lot,” Williams told the Sunday Observer.

“I would like them try to find something to be done to the place so people can get benefit from it. We don’t know what is going to take place; but within myself I feel like how they are closing down they should cut up the land and plant fruits, like plum, melon and whatsoever, to encourage people to help families,” she added hopefully.

Ian Thompson, a 46-year-old single father of three, is disgruntled and saddened. Thompson, who has lived in Golden Grove all his life – ten of which he worked at the estate – argued that the company’s management had gone about the redundancy exercise in a “disrespectful” way.

“The management had a meeting with the union, and the union came and told us about it. It was a surprise. A disrespect, because them (management) shoulda come back and tell wi,” Thompson said.

Thompson, like Williams, has had a difficult time coping, and he is expecting it to get worst.

“It kinda rough, still, because nutten naw gwaan, an’ things a get rougher and rougher. In terms of work, from the hurricane blow mi nuh do nutten. Mi trying to find something, but nutting,” he said.

He is uncertain of his next move.

“Mi nuh really know, mi jus’ a go look roun. Mi did check seh them would clean up again cause normally that’s what they do all the while; clean up and continue, but this time them decide fi draw out,” he added wearily.

The tale did not vary much with other residents. Veronica McIntosh, who also worked at the estate for ten years selecting, weighing and packing bananas, is also pondering her next move. The mother of five, whose partner also worked at the farm, is the picture of uncertainty. She too had thought the farm would have rebuilt like former years.

“Last year when (Hurricane) Dean affect wi, wi go back and clean up and build back. Dean did worse than Gustav,” she reminisced.

“I feel a way because I don’t have anything else to do. I have my five children, and two still going to school. Anything I have, ah let them go to school and them have to satisfy because them father not working either – he used to work there too,” she explained worriedly.

She also feels that the management had shafted the workers.

“How them nuh give wi a letter to show that we are redundant? Them seh them was going to keep a meeting with us at 10:00, and all after 12:00 them nuh come and then the union come and tell us that we redundant and the farm closing out of the blue like that, them jus’ let wi off so,” she said.

When asked about her plans for the future, she said “Bwoy mi don’t know yu nuh”.

Meanwhile, all 23-year-old Raymond Miller has to work with is a heartfelt plea.

“Wi would love if the government would give us some help. Wi badly need it; wi young, wi strong, if they could give us some level land so we can help ourselves.”

“I worked all year with the banana, from the workforce blow down I don’t have no net to lean on, just seeking job and not getting any. Wi jus’ want a good hand,” said Miller, who is married.

For 49-year-old Yvonne McPherson this January would have been her second year at the estate, but Gustav took care of that.

“I haven’t got anything else doing jus’ sitting down right now,” the single mother of three told the Sunday Observer.

Asked what her future plans were, her answer was a heavy sigh.

“Well, to be honest, I’ll have to try something else. What I plan to do if they give me any of the payout, I would buy a fridge and sell some fish. That’s what I was planning to do,” she said wistfully.

A group of young men sitting under a tree near the Golden Grove main road made the situation startlingly clear.

“Wi nuh have nutting a do right now miss, wi jus’ siddung a look like bredda dawg. Dem place yah nuh have no whole heap a work. A jus’ two tings banana or cane. A pure siddung ting a gwaan right now, but wi naw go do nutten bad, wi a gwaan hold di faith”, the spokesman for the group said to murmurs of agreement from his friends.

The estate was forced to close after it sustained 95 per cent damage during Tropical Storm Gustav in August. The government, to prevent an economic fallout in the parish, has unveiled a $131-million assistance package for the displaced workers.

Jamaica Producers in 2004 made the jobs of 440 workers redundant after Hurricane Ivan ravaged the company’s banana farms in September. At that time 360 individuals from the Eastern Banana Estate were laid off.