MONTEGO BAY, St James — Operators of Grand Depot, tucked away at a four-way stoplight leading into Catherine Hall/Westgreen, never even got a chance to use their new parking lot before Hurricane Melissa’s wallop left millions in damage. But they, like many other businesses in the area, have no intention of throwing in the towel.

Opened last year, Grand Depot is a combination of a supermarket and houseware outlet. Proprietor Yangsen Li told the Jamaica Observer they lost all their stock but are pushing to recover in time for the holiday season.

“We will open back before Christmas,” he said confidently.

Li also operates Afresh Marketplace at Harbour City Mall and is the driving force behind The Pinnacle luxury residential development.

“About $200 million [was] lost, we throw away all the food items,” he said of Grand Depot. “We are still working on clearing and sanitising the shop.”

Li said Melissa’s blow hit especially hard because because of just-completed major infrastructural work.

“Even the parking lot on the back we just finished construction. We never get a chance to use it yet and hurricane has just destroyed it,” Li lamented.

Despite these setbacks, he and his team have been helping others in need, delivering care packages daily as a show of their commitment to the community.

Grand Depot is just one of many businesses in the Catherine Hall/Westgreen and Fairview areas that have made it clear that they remain a part of the community despite the current challenges. According to Dwight Crawford, councillor for the Spring Gardens Division in which they fall, many are pushing to reopen as soon as possible.

“Most of the businesses within the space understand the challenges and understand that these are weather occurrences. They’ve said to me, they are not going anywhere,” he told the Observer.

“They’re going to reopen their doors and continue serving the communities right around,” Crawford added.

Heavy rain associated with Hurricane Melissa caused the Montego, Barnett and Pye rivers to overflow their banks and inundate residential and commercial buildings in the area.

Crawford expressed pleasure that commercial activity has already resumed.

“The businesses are gradually reopening in the area, especially the Fairview area, because as you know they were impacted by the water,” the councillor said.

“Gradually we are seeing the doors of businesses in the area reopen to a certain level with respect to operations,” he added.

He noted that those that have reopened tend to close earlier so their staff can get home sooner than usual.

“We are rising again and I want to tell you that we are going to come out better than we were even before we went into the storm. Because sometimes when you have these challenges, it provides you with opportunities to fix some things that needed to be fixed from before,” Crawford mused.

“We are not going to stop until we get it right and put it in a place where it will regain its prowess,” Carwford added.

The recently completed parking lot at Grand Depot supermarket in Montego Bay was damaged by Hurricane Melissa.

The Hurricane Melissa-ravaged parking lot of Grand Depot supermarket in Montego Bay. 

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CRAWFORD… they’ve said to me they are not going anywhere.