DESPITE the destruction that surrounded them, residents of Laughlands, St Ann, remained in high spirit days after the onslaught of Hurricane Melissa and expressed confidence that, together, they will rebuild.

Ferdinand King stood amid the remains of his house, which was decimated by the hurricane, his face and clothes dusted white with flour. King’s birthday on October 25 had passed quietly as he prepared for the weather system which struck Jamaica on October 28. But, after the storm subsided, his friend Richie decided to keep their tradition alive, dousing him in flour in belated celebration.

It’s a familiar practice in Jamaica, where friends cover the birthday celebrant in flour — a playful prank that symbolises joy, good luck, and enduring friendship, even in the face of hardship.

“I feel sad, but [it’s] just my life me a focus on,” King told the Jamaica Observer on a visit to the community last Thursday.

As he gave a tour of his home that was flattened by the strong winds of Hurricane Melissa, he stopped to share his experience battling the storm, laughing as he found pockets of humour in the story of disaster.

King said he was inside his house when the winds and rain picked up.

“Me inna the house and me say, ‘Jesus Christ, me know say the house nah go make it.’ But when me see the [breeze] turn come back and woo woo woo…a sail me sail out. All when them a say, ‘Fyah, what happen to you?’ Me gone,” he recalled, bending over in a bout of laughter.

“Man a say if me couldn’t go under bed. I couldn’t go under [the] bed…you see all [this zinc], it is the first zinc come off the house and a way down where you see the other house I go take it up,” he recounted.

When asked how he managed to be in such high spirits after the storm, King said he has always been resilient.

“A strong me strong and know say I had to just watch it and see what can gwan and run out. Me meet [Hurricane] Gilbert; me meet [Hurricane Ivan], and all of them…The first time when [Hurricane] Gilbert blow Portland, me deh there, and I left and came over here so [Laughlands, St Ann]. One [hurricane] met me over [the right side of the river] already, then I came over [the other side] and [met] the other one that passed [Hurricane Beryl], and this one [Hurricane Melissa] come pass me the other day.

“Two hurricanes pass me over here, but this one is dangerous because I see it catch the house and [fling it],” he said, a belly of laughter erupting from his lips.

“…A nuh Melissa alone walk. It coming like a [she] and one man war or [she] see a man here weh [she] love make she never wah leff,” he said, chuckling as he sought to make sense of the disaster around him.

He shared that he has had a rough life, but he has never allowed his circumstances to kill his joy. As he picks up the pieces, he and Richie will work together to rebuild, helping each other in any way they can. All they ask is for some assistance as they make progress.

A farmer and carpenter by trade, Richie told the Sunday Observer that while much of the bananas, plantains, tomatoes, and other crops he grew for sale were damaged, sections of his house were still standing, thanks to a fallen tree that did more good than bad.

“[The tree] tear down and drop on the front of the zinc and hold down the zinc [so that] it nuh blow off,” he shared.

Other sections of his home, such as the kitchen and bathroom, were blown away, but he has managed to find a few pieces of his board to start repairs.

“Me did wah come out, but when I [saw that] it started to blow I [said] I can’t come out, because if me come out me woulda dead. One tree just go so, zups, and me a say, ‘No sah, me nah come out in this rain.’ Me nuh come out inna it because me know say this will kill you,” he shared, laughing.

He said the water rushing from a nearby river was also strong enough to wash away a small bridge that gave him access to his home. Giving true meaning to the Jamaican phrase, ‘Take yuh hand mek fashion,’ he created a bridge from fallen tree limbs.

“The bridge was right here so, and the bridge take away clean, clean. I cut down a piece of the tree limbs to see if I can skate on my bottom come straight across, because I don’t have any other way to go across. I try everywhere else, and it’s only this small access I have where I can go cross,” he explained, as he proudly pointed to his invention.

Richie then went down to the riverbank that had been partially eroded and mounted the tree limbs to get to his house as proof that the limbs were sturdy enough to carry his weight.

He said he intends to use his skills as a carpenter to see how he can help himself and others in the community rebuild.

“We have to help one another. If everybody gets involved and helps one another, it must feel better because [it’s not] you alone doing all of the work, somebody [is] there to help you. Me just ago help them do [their] work, and then after a while now we wouldn’t mind get some board and some zinc, quick and fast, to make up a nice house for [King],” he said, appealing for donations.

Richie, a resident of Laughlands, St Ann, carefully crosses a river on the branches of a fallen tree, his only route home after Hurricane Melissa’s raging waters washed away a small bridge that once stood there. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Downed banana and plantain trees and other vegetation surround the home of Richie, a farmer in Laughlands, St Ann.  (Naphtali Junior)