CATHERINE HALL, St James – Trying to maintain  the delicate balance between compassion and the letter of the law, Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon has given a commitment that he will find a way to help single mom Raquel take a crucial step in recovering from Hurricane Melissa. She has been struggling to find $40,000 to pay someone to remove heaps of foul smelling debris the storm left in her yard.

After Raquel reached out to Vernon, he has gotten her local representative Dwight “Debo” Crawford involved.

“State resources, public funds are for public roads., not for private property. We would be doing her a favour if we get into that space – which is not supposed to happen. The councillor is dealing with it. He will help her to mobilise some people to clear it up,” the mayor told the Jamaica Observer when contacted.

He stressed the need to ensure no rules are broken as every effort is made to help those who need it. He also explained how the clean-up process works for private vs public property.

“We will see how best we can provide some assistance to her but the fact still remains that what is in your yard, you are responsible for it. If we extend ourselves to your yard, we are basically going overboard to give additional assistance,” Vernon said.

“State resources cannot be spent on personal property, straight. No matter what the case is, that is a misappropriation of funds. We understand it is in your yard, you need to get it out so that we can pick it up. Us going into the yard, it means that we could go in any yard in West Green or Catherine Hall and clean up. The last thing that you want to hear is that, ‘Something went wrong whilst doing this operation in my yard.’ We don’t want to have that responsibility on our hands,” added the mayor.

Convinced her original dwelling would not be able to withstand the storm, Raquel moved into the concrete house with slab roof in Catherine Hall, St James, hours before Melissa arrived. She added a few coats of paint and some doors to make the space more comfortable and pleasing to the eye.

“The idea was for us to move down here thinking it would be safer before the hurricane. That is why we started moving because there are issues where we were,” Raquel told the Observer during a recent visit to her community. “Things that I moved down in there, I lost them as well too. So, it is a loss for us.”

The woman and her six-year-old child have been driven from the house by the horrible stench emanating from stagnant mud and debris they have to climb over to access the property. At one point, Raquel was injured by bamboo among the debris.

About five feet of muddy water flooded the house during the storm. With her catering business now on hold, she is struggling to find the money to have the property cleaned up.

She has already paid $20,000 to have the house washed out, and she was given an estimate of $40,000 to have the debris removed from her yard.

“I don’t have that money to clean it. My business collapsed because of the hurricane, so I have to start all over,” stated Raquel.

“How could I get all these debris out of the yard to put on the road. I have to pay somebody. I cannot clean up this yard with all those debris. I already lost everything in there. We have to get the house washed [out], sanitised, then paint over the place, and get all that mud out of the yard. Those mud can’t stay in there. Those mud have to come out,” she added.

Raquel was among residents who attended Wednesday’s town hall meeting hosted by Mayor Vernon at the Catherine Hall Primary and Infant School to discuss flood, clean up, water supply, aid and relief for residents within the community.

Debris, appliances, furniture and vehicles destroyed by hurricane Melissa that are piled up to the side of several houses in Catherine Hall.