SMITHFIELD, Westmoreland – With hundreds of houses either flattened or stripped of their roofs, carpenters, masons, and other tradesmen across this parish are being stretched as they try to assist as many families as possible.

Across Smithfield the almost uniform position of residents is that, while they appreciate the care packages distributed so far, what they urgently need is manpower and materials, even for temporary repairs.

They believe that with basic supplies and more hands on deck many of the homeless could return to safe shelter far more quickly.

On Sunday, 75-year-old Elveta Taylor sat on a bucket beside the ruins of what used to be her house wiping tears as she surveyed the wreckage.

Taylor told the Jamaica Observer that she and her daughter must soon leave the homes where they are now sheltering, but they have nowhere to return to as efforts to get workmen to start constructing even a temporary shelter on her property have failed.

“A man came today [Sunday], but him say him could give me only two hours,” said Taylor.

“A me and mi daughter, [and] me stay down the road while she stay next door. I want to fix up the room that is attached to the bathroom so we can go in there. But the workman said him can’t come back until next week Wednesday,” added Taylor.

Her daughter, Shanique Warren, has until today to find somewhere to live.

She tried to salvage what she could from the rubble that was once their house on Sunday and stepped on a nail, but the tears which were streaming down her face were not from the pain inflicted by the injury.

“Mi can’t badda,” said Warren as a neighbour rushed over with first-aid supplies.

Moments later another neighbour shouted to her urging her to stop digging through the debris until help arrived.

“Mi have to do it because a we alone. If mi nuh do it, who a go do it?” Warren responded as she disinfected the nail wound with alcohol before going straight back to clearing the rubble.

Meters away fisherman Garnet Williams was getting help from his sons and several neighbours to rebuild his one-room house that had been demolished by Melissa.

“Mi have life,” Williams said. “Mi have to give God thanks because mi only lose some birds. The pig pen roof blew off, but the pig dem never hurt. Some of the goat them did under the house bottom and when the house drop mi take them and throw then in the concrete house and mi no lose none,” added Williams.

He recalled that during the passage of Melissa he and one of his sons were inside when the roof was blown off the house. They ran for cover at another house and soon after Williams watched helplessly as his house collapsed, the wind from the storm carrying his mattress across the road into the mangroves.

Elvis Nepaul, who lives a few houses away from Williams, told the Observer that the section of the community where he lives has not received any official aid so men with carpentry skills have joined forces and are moving from one home to the next, trying to rebuild at least a single room for each displaced family.

“We have to help ourselves,” Nepaul said. “When we finish here we are going to work on another house up the road,” added Nepaul.

He noted that with so many homes destroyed it will take time, even just to get everyone “one room” to sleep in.

According to Nepaul, residents say the situation has worsened due to price gouging.

“Di people them raise up everything,” Nepaul said. “Zinc nail gone up, lumber gone up, tarpaulin gone up, even drinking water gone up. We can’t afford anything,” charged Nepaul.

Meanwhile, Samantha Brown, a single mother of two, spoke calmly as she pointed to the collapsed remains of her house.

“[Hurricane] Ivan [in 2004] did wi so bad, so I was prepared,” Brown told the Observer.

“The entire house drop, [but] I wasn’t there. I wasn’t going to take any chances. We bagged up everything and went to another house,” said Brown.

Using the pieces of construction material which survived Melissa’s onslaught, Brown rebuilt a small one-room structure for herself and her children, aged 11 and 6. Her chicken coop survived, but only six of her 12 chickens did.

“No help not going to come, so mi have to help myself. They say if you don’t have a land title you not going to get any help, so we just have to help we self. We just need drinking water, and I would like some chicken so I can restart the business,” added Brown.

Samantha Brown of Wharf Road, Westmoreland used whatever she could salvage from her house which was destroyed by Melissa to build a one room temporary shelter for herself and her two children. (Photo: Rosalee Wood Condell)

Wharf Road resident Linford Barrett, whose house was demolished by Melissa, says his major concern is getting help to purchase material to rebuild. (Photo: Rosalee Wood Condell)