LITTLE LONDON, Westmoreland — It was a terrifying experience for residents of Camp Savanna in Little London who sought refuge from the onslaught of Hurricane Melissa, a powerful Category 5 storm that flattened their homes on October 28, as the expected haven, the nearby Seventh-day Adventist Church, was not really safe. The zinc portion of the church roof was lifted from over the heads of those who sheltered there by the strong winds associated with Melissa. But luckily, one section of the roof was concrete, providing a little shelter for the many people there as Melissa raged outside.

One Camp Savanna resident, Damian Robinson, whose house was also flattened by Melissa, remains in the Seventh-day Adventist Church shelter with his spouse.

“When mi stand up at my back door and look at the bush over there and see the breeze a blow and a come mi say to my girlfriend, ‘Watch here now, we can’t stay in here because this breeze, mi no trust it’,” Robinson recalled of the Tuesday afternoon that Melissa hit.

He said he was on his way to the church shelter when the breeze intensified.

According to Robinson, at that time he saw trees being blown down and his neighbours running towards the church for shelter.

They all had to gather in the area of the church with the concrete roof after the zinc was blown off the area they had initially made their bed.

On October 29, Robinson left the shelter and took the journey to where his house was but from a distance he realised the spot was empty.

“In the morning when mi walk come over here everything flat. All the bed base mi find one place and mi find the mattress one mile away across a gully. Zinc, ply, [and] everything tear up and gone,” said Robinson, a labourer and farmer.

He said while he lost his house, furniture, and agricultural produce his goat survived despite being covered by items that fell on it. His cat and her two kittens also survived the heavy rain and strong wind..

Robinson pointed out that while the experience of Melissa left him terrified, he is trying to pick up the pieces as he rebuilds.

“It really shocked me but mi have to just put mi head to the Father and say a so it go. Him nah give we more than we can manage. You just have to know say a so it go and take up what to take up and protect what to protect. Take the clothes them out of the mud and carry them go to the river go clean up,” said a philosophical Robinson.

Robinson’s neighbour 67-year-old Lacen Thompson told the Jamaica Observer that he decided to shelter at the church before Melissa hit as his house was made of board.

“I was in the building part and it was a good thing the building had a deck part [a concrete roof section] because if it was not there we would ah dead,” Thompson told the Observer as a news team visited the rural community on Tuesday.

With news that the storm had passed Thompson, who lives alone, headed home to find a vacant space where the building once stood.

According to Thompson, as he walked towards the property he realised that there was nothing to go home to. “Mi see the house flat,” said Thompson. “Mi just say, ‘Jesus mi house gone. Where mi a go live’,” added Thompson.

He pointed out that while he has survived hurricanes in the past, Melissa was a different challenge.

“Mi lose everything. See mi fridge deh, a mi new brand fridge,” stated Thompson.

“If mi did know say the storm would be so heavy, mi would move it out go down to the church. Oh God, mi never know say it would really be so serious because Beryl [in 2024] and Ivan [in 2010] passed it [his house] and nothing no do it. This one don’t pass it,” lamented Thompson who is still sleeping at the shelter more than one week after Melissa.

He is hoping that assistance will come.

Damian Robinson points to the base of his bed which was all that was left after Hurricane Melissa flattened his house in Camp Savanna, Little London, Westmoreland. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)

The roof-damaged Seventh-day Adventist Church in Camp Savanna where several residents sought refuge from Hurricane Melissa. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)