SANTA CRUZ, Jamaica — Residents of several communities in St Elizabeth remained marooned up to late Wednesday as first responders struggled to access the areas a day after Category 5 Hurricane Melissa ravaged that section of the island.

Among the first responders who tried to reach the marooned residents were teams on nine ambulances, doctors and nurses from the Southern Regional Health Authority trying to get into the parish capital of Black River.

The ambulance teams were pulled from Clarendon and Manchester hospitals and deployed to evacuate patients from Black River Hospital, which is at the epicentre of the catastrophe in that parish.

However, the units and medical staff were among scores of motorists stranded for hours while members of the Jamaica Defence Force’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) and residents tried to remove downed trees west of Santa Cruz. The clearing effort was hampered by fallen concrete poles in Lacovia.

Major Bob Bailey of DART told the Jamaica Observer that he was tasked with getting soldiers into Black River.

“We are trying to head to Black River, which we know is the most affected area coming out of Hurricane Melissa. We are pushing forward and we have the main body coming behind us, but we are trying to clear the route as we traverse,” said Major Bailey.

“We really weren’t expecting so many downed trees when we hit the road this morning, but we just had to get into it [and clear the road]. I saw several ambulances coming down and we were trying to make it as best as possible for all of those coming behind us,” he added.

Among the stranded travellers was a woman, who identified herself as Junika, who was trying to get to her parents’ house in Kilmarnock near New Market in northern St Elizabeth.

“I left Manchester after 9:00 am and it is now after 2:00 pm. We have been in traffic for a while now. My parents live in Kilmarnock. I haven’t heard from them since minutes to 11:00 yesterday [Tuesday] and the last I heard the roof was lifting, so since then all communication on that side has been down,” Junika said.

Yushaine Morgan, an attorney and resident of Santa Cruz, said the town was unrecognisable.

Morgan, dressed in a ‘I love Santa Cruz’ shirt, said she was heading to the town “to give some hope to the people of Santa Cruz, because what we went through yesterday [Tuesday] is beyond what we would have imagined, no matter how badly we think things could have gone”.

“Honestly, there are parts of my town that I cannot recognise. There are roads which are no longer roads. You are seeing the foundation of these roads. So many persons have lost their houses, so many persons have lost motor vehicles, animals, and businesses have been destroyed. We are devastated. I don’t know where we are going to begin to rebuild this wonderful place that I call home, and I have no desire of ever vacating,” added the attorney.

A woman who gave her name as Petrona pointed to the difficulty in making contact with the outside world.

“We have no signal, so we can’t get to communicate with family and friends, and as you see, it is devastating here in Santa Cruz. I got one radio station, but it is just Gospel playing on it. I live in Santa Cruz on Retirement Road,” said Petrona.

Owen Dockery, a resident of Park Mountain near Santa Cruz, described the horror of Hurricane Melissa, claiming the experience was worse than Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.

“This is history. I remember Gilbert because I was about 10 years old and living in Park Mountain. There the road never [asphalt] or anything and it was accessible. Just a few trees were downed and as a little youth we a run up and down all over. Right now, how Park Mountain stay, the road to go to your home is blocked,” said Dockery.

“Now you have all some trench in the road, all two-foot deep,” he added.

Celia Coke, a resident of Wilton, whose bar was destroyed during the storm, was distraught as she looked out of what was once a window at the establishment near Santa Cruz.

“Everything gone, everything mash up. I reach here and found the fridge out a door, but me have to thank God say me have life. Who can give me a help, give me a help. Please, I am asking for a little help. I have my grandson to look about,” said Coke.

Her friend, who identified himself by his alias Rasta, described his ordeal during Melissa.

“The worst thing is the roof of the house blow off and a swim me have to swim come out. Every house top in Wilton blow off. Every tree is on the ground,” he said.

Craig Stewart, a resident of Park district near Santa Cruz, was out early on Wednesday as he bought nails to repair his roof.

“The roof is gone. The kitchen mash up and the fowl coop. Everything was blown away. I bought zinc nails. My rooftop was blown off, but to go back in my house I have to nail it back on,” said Stewart.

A man jumps over a road gutted by flood waters from Hurricane Melissa in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth, on Wednesday.

A man carefully steps on blocks lined out to cross waterlogged Main Street in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth on Wednesday. Garfield Robinson

This man carries a child on his back through the muddy road in Santa Cruz on Wednesday.