WHEN Hurricane Ivan wiped out several homes in a section of Portland Cottage, Clarendon, in 2004, a housing scheme was developed on prime lands at nearby Shearer’s Heights to relocate 200 of the most severely impacted residents.

Twenty years and several storms later some of those residents — who say they had been listed for relocation but were never rehoused — are crying foul.

The residents spoke to the Jamaica Observer last Thursday, during a visit to the community in the wake of Hurricane Beryl which ripped through the island’s south coast on Wednesday.

“My house, my mother house, and my bar, wi get flood out, the roof gone — everything. Mi go through this three times now,” Dewyane Thompson said in frustration.

“Scheme build up deh so and I nuh get no house outta it; a nuh apply wi apply, a who fah name dem write down get it. We go through [hurricanes] Ivan [September 2004], Dean [August 2007], and now Beryl and the only thing we get a promise; wi don’t get nutten,” added Thompson.

The 16.6 hectares (40 acres) of land was identified in Portland Cottage through the then Office of National Reconstruction (ONR) which said the new scheme would be constructed in two phases, with priority being given to those people who were left homeless.

The ONR also said that those residents who still had a proper structure, but who lived in a location considered to be unsafe, would be given attention in the second phase.

Additionally, the ONR said three similar communities were to be built across the island
— at Rocky Point in Clarendon, Old Harbour Bay in St Catherine, and Brighton in Westmoreland.

But last Thursday the residents said nothing had gone as planned for the starter home settlement for Portland Cottage.

“The selection process, nobody really know; more than name write down. Friendship, and that’s it. We lost everything. Other people fraid fi speak out but we just realistic and we talk the truth. Three house inna mi yard and wi nuh get nutten pertaining to the scheme. Water reach five, six feet and no priority. Is a friendship basis,” one resident charged.

“We need help. Some people who get help nuh really value it, and who need help nuh get it. Mi shop, mi house, whole a it gone,“ declared the resident.

Another three disgruntled residents with whom the Sunday Observer spoke said they had also suffered the greatest losses during Ivan in 2004 but ended up not being lodged at Shearer’s Heights.

They told the newspaper that individuals from as far as Point Hill in St Catherine had received dwellings. According to the residents, some of the lucky recipients sold the starter houses while others have migrated, leaving their houses shuttered.

“This the third hurricane [since] they said they were building a scheme for all these people here at Sandy Spot because they were flooded. When the scheme build, even people from St Catherine get house, and most of these from the scheme don’t get any house so they had to rebuild what they had. And the hottest part of it is that after Ivan they put a sign to say no-building zone, but we didn’t have a choice,” one woman told the Sunday Observer.

“It is very unfortunate. I am upset from last night [Wednesday] because, when I was thinking about my grandmother, and I said: ‘My grandmother is living over here, where will she go? She is 81 years old; give her something so she has somewhere to stay.’ Some of the houses are abandoned and some sell. It’s unfair and I am upset,” she said passionately.

One male resident who was seen mopping water from his house, which had lost most of its roof, said the situation does not augur well for the sitting Member of Parliament for Clarendon South Eastern Pearnel Charles Jr in the next general election, constitutionally due next year.

“Dat deh man nuh do nutten round ya so; from Ruddy [Rudyard] Spencer gawn him nuh do nutten. Him nuh know seh a whitewash wi a plan fi gi him dis ya election, him betta know dat,” said the resident resolutely.

“From Ruddy gone da man deh nuh fix di road. Wi nuh want him roun’ ya. If them nuh get rid of him before election, Labourite a go lose round yah,” he added.

The residents were also less than pleased with Charles Jr’s quick drive-through of the community hours after Hurricane Beryl passed.

“He says we must take picture and keep the pictures for proof so that, moving forward, they will know what to do, because they are unable to do anything at the moment. Please make sure you write that and don’t pretty it up,” one resident told the Sunday Observer militantly.

But Charles Jr, in a brief interview with the Sunday Observer, said his visit to the community last Thursday was to conduct a damage and needs assessment.

“We will be doing what’s possible to help,” he said.