EACH day since Hurricane Melissa’s deadly onslaught two sisters in St Elizabeth have been wading through waist-deep, murky flood water, determined to reach their grandmother and her sister with food and comfort.

The sisters, ages 16 and 23, declined to share their names. However, they said that while the daily trek is tiring, they regard it as their duty to their elderly relatives who are staying in a shelter at Lacovia Primary School.

“The water is knee high, waist high in some areas,” the elder granddaughter told the Jamaica Observer last Thursday at the shelter.

The family resides in the community of Slipe in north-western St Elizabeth. Up to last Friday evening it was still inaccessible because of flood water, downed trees, and other debris left by Hurricane Melissa during its rampage across that section of the island on Tuesday, October 28.

“Our house is okay, so we can go back in and cook, but no vehicle can pass to get out there,” the 23-year-old explained.

“I am tired and in pain because we have to travel through the water, climb over trees, and through rubble. It makes sense that we just swim, and then we have to come back again after we finish cooking. It is a lot,” she said.

“We can’t get them back home, so we just have to bring clean clothes and food for them. We went back home [after the storm] and we came back and stayed with them, and we will have to go back tonight,” she added.

“We cook the rice in a big container…put it in a bag and carry it,” the elder sister shared.

That dedication to family is evident in the attention that 82-year-old Mehela Drummond gives to her 86-year-old sister Olive Hall.

“I have to lift her up, put her in the bed, and see to it that she gets something to eat and comb her hair,” Drummond told the Sunday Observer while patting her sister’s grey plaits.

She described the hurricane as deeply frightening.

“It was very serious; the rain fell and splashed up and wet up inside. I had to hug her close up to me,” Drummond said, demonstrating how she had wrapped her arms around her sister during the ordeal.

Hall looked up at her sister and leaned into her from time to time, but did not speak.

Meanwhile, the 23-year-old said that the four of them and another male family member are still awaiting assistance.

“No police, no ambulance, nobody has come,” she said.