Isolated by the collapse of communication systems due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa, Jamaicans from across the island — some from as far as Kingston — flocked to St Elizabeth Wednesday in a desperate search for their families and loved ones, as well as to check on property.

One man, an amputee who identified himself as ‘One Foot Carl’, made the journey from Old Harbour, joining a slow-moving caravan of vehicles that stretched from Lacovia, St Elizabeth, back to the outskirts of Santa Cruz in the parish.

“One of my friends asked me to accompany her to look for her father, so mi walk wid my saw,” he explained as he exited his vehicle with a power saw and container of gasoline, prepared to help clear the road of blockades.

Supported by his crutches, Carl expertly wielded the power saw to assist Jamaica Defence Force soldiers in clearing roads.

This man, who jokingly identified himself as One Foot Carl, uses a power saw to cut a downed tree on the Lacovia main road in St Elizabeth on Wednesday.

Another man, Jerome Steadman, who lives in eastern Westmoreland, made light of the situation, saying, “I do have a sister named Melissa, I never knew a so the girl rude.”

He had made the trek from Kingston, undaunted by a flat tyre.

“We are here trying to get home, trying to see what happened with our places back home. I was in Kingston, and I heard that everything [is] flat there, so I am taking this journey to see what happened over there,” he said.

Stefan Wisdom was travelling with his infant son and Steadman. “I’m going to look on my house because my friend called me to say it’s gone, I’m going to see if I can take up two of my things,” he explained.

The caravan came to a screeching halt outside Santa Cruz, where downed trees and power lines forced soldiers and volunteers to cut their way through, extending what would normally be a 15-minute drive to Lacovia to a five-hour trip.

In Lacovia, residents told the Jamaica Observer of their battle with Hurricane Melissa to preserve life and property.

One man said he rode out the hurricane wedged between a wall and a piece of roofing material. Further up the street his neighbour braced his body weight against his front door to keep it from blowing off; across from that home, another young man had to shelter in his car after the storm tossed his home to the side.

All of them told the Observer that Hurricane Gilbert, which devastated Jamaica in 1988, was nothing compared to this experience.

“This is where I sheltered for the whole a it,” Mario White said, looking out from behind the single sheet of zinc that he said saved his life.

Lacovia resident Mario White demonstrates how he hid behind this zinc sheet for three hours to keep himself safe during the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

The floor of his home was scattered with his belongings mixed with the remnants of his roof, all soaking wet. Leaned up against the back wall of the living room was the faithful piece of zinc.

“The storm came and backed me up here. I started to go out and I had to turn back with my TV and medication… everything start lift off… so this is where I [stayed] until the storm finish; right under this piece a zinc here …about three hours,” he said, demonstrating how he wedged himself between the wall and the corrugated roofing material.

Omar Perry, who lives just metres away, had a similar battle.

“I fight till a weak; it took out two of the windows. I had to take my barrel of clothes and put it at the window. I stood up at the door for hours for it not to take off the door. Mi seh, I fight till a weak; I am tired, man,” Perry said, while sitting on the remnants of the roof of his home.

Omar Perry, a resident of Lacovia, St Elizabeth, attempts to fix his roof a day after Hurricane Melissa destroyed it.

Despite his fatigue, Perry was single-handedly trying to put the roof back on so he, his 12-year-old daughter and his partner could have shelter Wednesday night.

He pointed to a flattened shop owned by his partner.

“It took up the shop and carried the whole shop across the road, and brought it back and come and put it back on the light post… I said no, man, this serious.”

For Perry’s partner, Julian Dunkley, the storm was terrifying, but more so for their daughter. Dunkley said after emerging from the home Wednesday morning, she had to use major landmarks to orient herself amid the destruction.

“It was like we were in a barren land… once there was a zinc roof there, it’s gone, there is no zinc roof or board house that survived this storm,” she said.

Directly across the street from the Perry home, a brother and sister sat in the remnants of what used to be their home.

“I was born inside this room; it is a family house,” Shantalea Kerr said of the separated two-bedroom, which she shared with her brother.

Shantalea Kerr sits on her bed in the remains of her home in Lacovia, St Elizabeth a day after Hurricane Melissa ravaged St Elizabeth. (Photos: Garfield Robinson)

Both of them were also frantically trying to put a roof back on the structure, now leaning to the side.

“I wasn’t coming to see anything at all, I thought it would be flat,” Shantalea admitted.

Fearing the strength of Hurricane Melissa, she had evacuated the board structure, but her brother Shawn stayed. When the hurricane took the roof, he ran to a car parked in the yard.

“I slept in that car. I had to run out of the place. I don’t know what to tell you right now, mi a mad out,” he said.

Shawn explained that after he ran to the car and got in the bonnet flipped open because of the wind, cracking the windscreen.

“It was a fight, man, it was a fight; hours, enuh, man… it beat us, man, it beat us, it beat us. But we give thanks, no life lost,” said Perry.

At press time, residents were still trying to access Holland Bamboo, Black River and other areas further west. Though they were impeded by concrete utility poles and downed trees, they refused to abandon the journey.