THE early morning sun brought with it a ray of hope for some sections of the busy economic hub of downtown Kingston over the weekend, when scores of vendors came out in their numbers to recover days of lost earnings caused by last week’s deadly gun battle between men loyal to Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke and the security forces.

Since last Monday the deadly stand-off crippled large sections of the business community resulting in the loss of billions of dollars, some business experts have suggested.

Groups of vendors who came out over the weekend to conduct business said that they were thankful that they were alive but wept openly over their losses.

The groups also made an appeal to the Kingston & St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) and other authorities to do what they could to help them.

“We are calling on organisations like the KSAC to see what they can do for us to even set up a little area where we can start selling again,” one woman said.

But while she made the appeal, there were those vendors like Jessica Bennett, 43, who lost everything.

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to turn. All me earnings, all me savings gone,” said Bennett, who said that she had been conducting business in the Coronation Market for over 20 years.

Bennett said that during the ongoing stand-off, a large section of the market where thousands of people came to earn, was destroyed by fire.

“Me owe loans, I took out a loan on my house to buy my goods. How am I going to cope. I have my children to feed. This is what I survive from,” said Bennett.

There were several stories as to how the fire started. Some vendors said that they were not sure if it were gunmen who started the blaze and there were some who said that soldiers did it.

“Three time fire burn me out, I don’t know what else to do,” Almarie ‘Angella’ Allen, another vendor, said while trying to ease her stress by smoking a cigarette.

Tanisha Lee, a vendor who was several months pregnant, told a tale of her mother being shot and admitted to hospital. Her brother, she said, was shot dead during the stand-off.

“On top of all of that my stall and all my goods burn up. All me money burn up in the fire,” Lee said.

Aneita Bartley, 41, another vendor, was at a loss for words and broke down in tears while she looked at the market’s burnt structure.

The Observer had to halt interviews arranged with vendors Victoria Daves and Pauline Thomas McKenzie, as other vendors swarmed the team, asking that their names be taken and assistance sent their way.

Several metres away from the Coronation Market there were other vendors, who despite the stories of horror, said that they were hopeful.

“Well me lose a lot of money because of this but over the past two days I have been on the road and trying to make up back what I lost,” said one fish vendor who identified herself only as Shelly.

She was supported by groups of other vendors who said that the past few days things were slow but they were hoping that business would improve.

The vendors conducted their business under the watchful eyes of police and soldiers closely monitoring sections of the busy area.

Some store owners, said that they were happy that things were returning to normal, but declined to talk for long with the media.

“A since yesterday me see some of them a open them doors and we glad to see that,’ said one customer in a store on Orange Street.

Other storeowners who were not as fortunate to open, were seen cleaning out debris from what was left of their stores that were burnt and damaged by looters.