SANDY BAY, HANOVER — Relatives and friends of Claudia McLeod and her offspring have started to lay the foundation for the family’s new house. It will replace the one that slid down a slope, crashed into a tree, and shattered as Hurricane Beryl unleashed its wrath on Jamaica last Wednesday.

The house pulled its concrete columns with it down the small hill and hit the tree with such impact that it wrenched it from the earth.

The family of seven is now staying with various relatives or sleep outside. The hope is that they won’t be homeless for long.

“Ah good people them but them poor,” McLeod’s nephew, Deno Vernon, told the Jamaica Observer earnestly.

He was among a group who came out to lend a hand on High Level Road in Sandy Bay last Friday. They began by helping the family gather and clean their belongings, then they started work on the foundation.

“We decided that today we are going to start something. If we get the support would give thanks because we need it,” Vernon appealed.

The foundation is being built on the strength of their faith as they have no idea where the funds will come from to finish the job.

McLeod, who is grateful for the help, still marvels at what could have been if anyone had been inside when the three-bedroom house began its slide about 6:00 pm. It happened minutes after her son, Umroy Cunningham, received a phone call and left the premises.

McLeod, who works at a toilet tissue manufactoring company in St James, also sells small grocery items from a shop she operates at the bottom of the hill.

She said she was inside the shop, with some of her children and neighbours, when she decided to journey up to her house. Luckily her children convinced her not to venture out in the raging storm.

She told the Observer that she felt the strong winds from inside her shop but never dreamed her house was in danger. She was just waiting for Hurricane Beryl to pass. She was shocked into stillness when her daughter told her their house was totally destroyed.

“When they told me, mi not even move. Mi just sit down same time and seh, ‘No sah, fi real? No sah, that no real!’ I have sleepless nights,” McLeod shared.

“My neighbours that were down the shop with me when the incident happened run come and see if they could save some of the things, because not even clothes mi neva have. It was my cousin who gave me something to put on,” she stated.

She has been spending the nights at her cousin’s house since last Wednesday; her daughter is staying with her grandmother, and her adult sons sleep under a few pieces of zinc outside.

“I still don’t feel comfortable to know that them nuh have somewhere comfortable to sleep,” McLeod said morosely.

When the Observer visited the community last Friday she was almost in tears as she pointed to her hard-earned belongings — some completely destroyed — scattered on the ground.

“I have [high blood] pressure so, I can’t put certain things on my head,” she said as she struggled to keep calm.

McLeod is asking the Government or the private sector to help her family as they try to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. After the Hurricane Beryl experience she would like to see her new house built on a box foundation instead of columns.

“If they can give me a start I would be glad for it because right now, we don’t have it. We want some block, sand, stone and steel fi si if wi can put up something to go back in,” pleaded McLeod.

A similar plea for help came from her nephew Clifton Thompson who made time to assist on Friday.

“As you can see, they need the help. I was supposed to go to work… and I have to be up here helping them out,” he said.

He explained that he was unable to provide shelter as he only has a one-bedroom dwelling.

“Eyewater come a mi eye, you know, to know that everything came down flat on them. I’m just glad to know that them never inside because people could have died,” stated Thompson.

Claudia McLeod displays a dresser drawer and a mirror, the only remaining parts of her dresser which she lost when her house was destroyed during Hurricane Beryl.

Umroy Cunningham (left), his cousin Deno Vernon (centre), and family friend Dwayne Wright dig a new foundation for Claudia McLeod’s house. They are appealing for help to finish the job.

Claudia McLeod’s nephew Clifton Thompson (left), her son Umroy Cunningham (centre), and family friend Kevin Bucknor take a break from working in the sun. They are trying to rebuild McLeod’s house which was destroyed during the passage of Hurricane Beryl last Wednesday. (Photos: Anthony Lewis)