When the flood waters surged into her home in Estuary, Montego Bay, Shana-Lee Hull had only seconds to react. She grabbed her four-year-old daughter, forced open a door jammed by the weight of the rising water, and fled through thick “macca bush” to higher ground. Hours later, she stood on a hill watching helplessly as her house and vehicle disappeared beneath the flood.

“I lost everything,” she told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday.

“I’m standing here today but I’m homeless, I have no home.”

Hull, who has lived in the Estuary housing scheme for almost four years, is one of more than 100 residents who were displaced after Hurricane Melissa unleashed torrential rains and gusty winds across western Jamaica on Tuesday, leaving roads impassable and forcing families to flee their homes.

For Hull, the nightmare began in the middle of the hurricane as heavy rains pounded Montego Bay.

“We were watching everything. Every minute we were at the window looking out, looking out. But then I stopped and started cooking because it was raining, and I said, let’s just eat. Apparently, when I took my eyes off outside [that] was when the water started rising,” she recalled.

Within minutes, her home was surrounded and when she tried to open the door Hull noted that the pressure of the water pinned it shut.

“I braced against the door to try to open it, but it would not move. That’s the magnitude of the weight of the water and I braced and well, I know it was Jesus because I tell you, 10 tigers never stronger than me, and I pushed the door and was able to open the grill,” she recounted.

Clutching her daughter, Hull said she ran as fast as she could as the water rushed into her house.

“Normally she doesn’t listen to me, but that day she was just like, whatever Mummy says, I’m doing,” she said with a weary smile.

She also recalled that about 19 other residents escaped together with her, helping each another to climb through thorny bushes and over a hill to reach higher ground.

“Each one knocked each one up and we all helped each other. We had to actually climb through what we call macca bush… to get to higher ground because the water was rising so fast,” she said.

But when the group finally turned back, the sight below stunned them.

“When we were looking, we couldn’t see some of the vehicles anymore. I sat and watched my entire house covered in the water, my vehicle covered in water, couldn’t save anything,” she said.

Hull emphasised that she had stocked up for the storm, buying food, flashlights and lanterns in preparation for Melissa’s impact but noted that she “was not prepared for what came after”.

Hull believes that poor drainage and the overflowing of a nearby pond worsened the flooding in Estuary.

“My house is near a pond, so the pond essentially overflowed its banks and [the water] had nowhere left to run and it just took the houses. So… I’m appealing to the NHT (National Housing Trust) on that part, they have to fix that because there’s no way I would ever want to go back,” she appealed.

While Hull searches for shelter, her friend Kathy Campbell, a restaurant manager at Rainforest Seafood Market, has been leading relief efforts for Hull and their neighbours.

“I’m here to see if I can get some help for some homeless persons that are in my community, we need food. I’ve been cooking for them since the storm — breakfast and dinner. It’s very overwhelming, people have been displaced, nowhere to live, no food to eat,” Campbell told the Observer.

She explained that she prepares meals twice daily for about 30 displaced people.

“We prepare meals for the homeless persons now, and whoever can help us,” she said.

“Anything food-wise, toiletries, water — we need it. Among the group there are about 10 children, from one up to about 15 or 16 years old,” Campbell appealed.

Both women are pleading for urgent assistance.

“We need food, we need clothing for the kids, for the adults, anything essential. We need ice, we need water, everything. Let’s just say we have nothing,” said Hull.

As the flood waters recede, Estuary residents are left to rebuild lives washed away overnight. For Hull, the memories of that terrifying escape remain fresh, and the thought of returning home brings more fear than comfort.

“I don’t know about anybody else but I would never want to sleep again in that house,” she said.

— Jerome Williams and Charmaine N Clarke

In this video grab Shana-Lee Hull, who lives in Estuary housing scheme in Montego Bay, shares the frightening experience she had fleeing her house during Hurricane Melissa.