VENDORS at Salem Fishing Beach in Runaway Bay, St Ann, had to scamper shortly after the passage of Hurricane Melissa to secure their goods and valuables from thieves who saw it as an opportunity to profit from their misfortune.

During Melissa the roofs of approximately 10 shops at the fishing village were ripped off by the heavy, sustained winds. After the roofs vanished shop operators were faced with heavy rain as well as the criminals who went into shops to grab anything of value.

Patricia Trail, a fish vendor, explained to the Jamaica Observer that, “Because the roofs flew off, people were going down in there. They went into a lady’s place and took out her TV and other things”.

That reality put the minds of most of the vendors in a tailspin. They had to quickly find zinc and other material to replace the roofs, so as to not make it so easy for the thieves to access the buildings and their contents, most of which were already drenched by rain.

Another vendor, Barbara Martin, shared that she rushed to secure items in her shop, including a sound system which she feared would have been stolen.

“Mi carry it go round a my yard because the people a bruk down the place dem and a go in deh, so mi come fi di sound. Mi nuh know if the sound even a work [because] the top blow off. The fridge, I don’t know if it a work or not. Some of the things dem blow out. Mi a try see what can gwaan.

“A walk mi affi walk and pick up zinc to see if I can put it on the top and start again. Everything mash up. The drinks dem weh mi did have in the fridge, I gave them away to the people because, what mi ago do wid dem? Over the kitchen part, it flooded out. See the deep freezer deh. Mi not even know if it a work,” said Martin as she pondered how she was going to be able to pick up the pieces and move on with her business.

“Any help we get we appreciate it. You see for yourself how the place stay,” she added.

Operator of Miss Pam’s Fish Joint Pameline Baggo sipped tea from a mug as she sat and watched workmen carry out clean-up activities at her place.

She told the Jamaica Observer that she was robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars not by human thieves but by Hurricane Melissa.

“I am trying to get a loan so I can rebuild and restart. I lost the building, one of my fridge mash up. Destruction all around. Beryl was bad last year but it wasn’t this bad. This was a Category 5 storm and it was an all-island storm.

“It was bigger and stronger. It blew me down. I lost a lot of fish and chicken. The damage is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Fish is $1,200 per pound, very expensive,” explained Baggo.

In the meantime Winston Campbell, who offers boat repair and other services at the fishing beach, told the Observer that Hurricane Melissa caused him a lot of stress.

“Mi nuh eat from morning inuh. I just had to drink some rum to calm the nerves. The whole entire top of the main building was destroyed. Right now mi not even clean out mi shop yet. We have to help ourselves because if we nuh start helping ourselves, you know what will happen.

“Some of the zinc dem from the roof were bent. I had to go up there and straighten them out along with the boards, and I am not a woodwork man. I had to do what I could do and put on some stop leak. Right now, I have some more stop leak to put on. You can stay from here and see the holes in the zinc. I just have to do what I have to do. At my house in St Ann’s Bay, mi also have to repair it, while dealing with this at the same time,” Campbell said.

Salem Fishing Beach vendor Patricia Trail points to holes in the zinc roof covering her shop. She explained that the roof blew off during Hurricane Melissa and she had to hurry to repair it because thieves were entering the shop from above to steal her goods. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Pameline Baggo, the operator of Miss Pam’s Fish Joint at the Salem Fishing Beach in St Ann (Photo: Naphtali Junior)