IT is like a recurring decimal for residents of Hagley Gap located at the foot of the Blue Mountains in western St Thomas — heavy rain, broken roads, blocked bridge, and a struggle to get to school or work.

This time the damage was inflicted by Hurricane Melissa, and although they were spared the worst of the Category 5 storm which hit Jamaica on October 28, the residents again find themselves almost trapped in the rural community.

“You have a lot of people who work outside the community, and also children who go to school in Kingston who are really affected. They cannot go to work and children cannot go to school. Also, I think it is exam time now, so they really need to come out and go to school,” Shannette, a resident of the community, told the Jamaica Observer when the news team visited the area on Tuesday.

A trip that would usually take just about an hour through the St Andrew communities of Gordon Town and Mavis Bank became an almost four-hour journey as the Observer made its way through Morant Bay and Cedar Valley in St Thomas to get there.

That is the problem the residents now face — extra journey, extra cost.

“A lot of persons cannot afford to go around St Thomas to come back right here, because it is costly. People have to travel to and from the village. If they should leave from down this side of the community they would have to pay, like, $3,000 to and from which would be $6,000 in total,” said another Hagley Gap resident who gave his name only as Tommy.

“Also, it make people late to go work or school, because the vehicle that is going to take you will likely be taking others,” added Tommy.

The issue of the cost to get out of the community was also highlighted by Shannette, who pointed out that shops in the community are running low on supplies.

“This a affect we real bad right now, the shops them a run out a food because they are unable to go get supplies,” Shannette said.

She pointed out that the Mahogany Vale Bridge, which runs across the Yallahs River, and connects Hagley Gap to Mavis Bank is now impassable.

Fellow Hagley Gap resident Deno Grant, who has lived in the community for 40 years, described the problem with the bridge as a recurring one and charged that rural communities are not prioritised by the Government.

According to Grant, the bridge was not properly built and that is the reason for it being impassable once the area gets heavy rain. He said this issue can be corrected if the authorities intervene.

“You don’t need rocket science to figure this out; the river comes down with a lot of debris. If the river bed was flattened, the bridge would have been saved. The river is like 10 feet if they flatten it, maybe it would come down to like two inches,” added Grant

He told the Observer that two people were washed away while trying to cross the river to go out of the community recently and had to be rescued.

“We are trapped and people need to come out [of the community]. It reach to a stage where people are going to try their best to leave, because if you don’t have any money to go around St Thomas, you are going to try and cross the river, which is very dangerous,” added Grant.

For Roshane Lewis, a ninth grade student at Papine High, being unable to attend school is taxing.

“I just want to go back to school. This is going to set me back. I want to go to school to sit my exams,” he lamented.

For 11th-grader Demico Edwards, being out of classes at Calabar High is something that he cannot afford as he prepares to sit external exams.

“I just want the road to be fixed so I can go back to school. Teachers have reached out to inquire about my absence from school but I can’t reach in,” said Edwards as he noted that even if the school was to offer online classes he would not benefit as there is no Internet access in the community.

When the Observer visited the community on Tuesday many residents were seen hanging around the river in the vicinity of the impassable bridge.

They said they were awaiting a tractor that was organised by a resident of the community.