ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica — The Government is set to mobilise the necessary emergency relief for residents in St Elizabeth who have been impacted by Hurricane Melissa.

This was revealed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness , who visited the parish on Wednesday along with Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth South West Floyd Green, Superintendent of Police Coleridge Minto, commanding officer for the St Elizabeth Division, and Mayor of Black River, Richard Solomon.

“The entire infrastructure and everything needed for the convenience of modern living is destroyed here in Black River. The people are still coming to grips with the destruction, but from what I’ve seen and the interaction, the people here are strong, resilient and positive in outlook. The Government intends to complement that with bringing in the necessary emergency relief,” he said.

The prime minister noted that the first line of business would be to clear the roadways to allow vehicular traffic to bring in supplies for supermarkets and supply centres.

“The first line of effort in this regard is to clear the roadways to allow for vehicular traffic, not just to allow people to come in and visit relatives that they can’t get in contact with, but to bring in much-needed supplies to the supermarkets and other supply centres which are now empty,” he shared.

“So once we get that accomplished, then we will start to see on top of that more assistance coming in, including assistance from ODPEM [Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management] and other relief agencies who I’m certain are already mobilised, waiting to come,” he continued.

Holness underscored that it would require much work to rebuild Black River, which has suffered a devastating impact from Melissa including damage to utility poles and buildings, particularly the Black River Hospital.

“I flew over the south coast of St Elizabeth into Black River, and from Treasure Beach to this point, we could easily say that between 80 to 90 per cent of roofs have been destroyed. A significant number of buildings were damaged. On the ground the impact is even more palpable.

“Right now we are standing in close proximity to the Black River Hospital, and that has been totally destroyed along with several other buildings, including historic buildings, churches, courthouses, the parish council and other older heritage buildings. They have been destroyed,” the prime minister said.

He added that the electricity grid of Black River has been totally wiped out.

“So yes, we got a big blow. Black River is what you would describe as ground zero. It took the brunt of it and the corridor through the south of St Elizabeth, through Black River, going across the island, going into St James. That corridor was totally damaged, but the recovery is not beyond us. It’s not beyond the Government. It’s not beyond us, and we will get it done,” Holness said.

Mayor of Black River, Richard Solomon, also made an appeal for assistance in the form of relief supplies, which he noted had been wiped out.

“One of the serious concerns that we are experiencing now, our relief supplies would have been totally wiped out. The container that we had stored with supplies to help out now would have been totally gone. Our building structure, which would have been hosting a lot of supplies, was totally wiped out. So at this point in time we’re appealing for some relief supplies to assist,” he said.

The mayor noted that a proper assessment to examine the extent of the damage of the weather system is set to be done.

“We would have had up to 16 feet of water at our command centre during the passage of Melissa. As a result, all our vehicles are immobile. So at this current time it’s impossible for us to respond. The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) would have been facing the same challenges just as us at the command centre. Even at the hospital the ambulance system transportation is totally down. So at this point in time we are in need of some mobility so that we can do a proper assessment,” he said.

Solomon noted that the next phase is to activate our humanitarian committee to do a proper assessment.

“We would have activated our system where we had contractors on standby, and I’m happy to report that so far three backhoes and trucks would have been here trying to assist with the clearing of some of these roads,” he said.

He further noted that a team from the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) has also been deployed to respond to critical areas.