FALMOUTH, Trelawny — Though the Martha Brae is still clogged with trees and logs from Hurricane Melissa, River Raft Limited, operators of the world-famous Rafting on the Martha Brae, is determined to be ready to welcome visitors when Jamaica’s tourism season opens in less than two weeks.

“We have a tentative opening date of December 15. We are still clearing the river. A huge amount of trees fell in the river and logs and all kinds of things, so until we have clear passage we can’t raft, but we are almost there,” owner Johnny Gourzong explained.

“The main damage was the grounds and the river. The structural damage was not that serious. We did sustain some damage but we are dealing with it — like the restaurant and bar and that type of thing. But it is more the clean-up exercise. And you can’t raft with logs in the river and tree trunks in the river and so on. We pushing hard,” added Gourzong, who also operates Jamaica Swamp Safari, which earned international acclaim as the location for the famous crocodile-jumping escape in the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die, starring Roger Moore.

With doors shuttered, the attractions missed out on potential business, last Tuesday when Falmouth resumed welcoming cruise ship passengers. Caribbean Princess, operated by Princess Cruises, and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Star were the first ships to dock at the town’s port in more than a month.

Cruise tourism is a lifeline for River Raft Limited. According to Gourzong, the wildlife sanctuary, known for its crocodile encounters and diverse bird species, suffered significant damage from the Category 5 storm and will remain shuttered.

“Swamp Safari took a battering, a serious battering. Swamp Safari is going to have to be redesigned and rebuilt — literally. Everything was blown down,” he said.

“We had crocodiles and birds, but we lost a lot of the birds. The crocodiles are fine because they are in concrete pools. We are trying to get the birds back by continuing to feed them as they come around,” he added.

The closure of both attractions since the storm’s passage has left a notable void in Falmouth’s tourism offerings just as the town had started to make strides as a tourist destination.

The reopening of the Falmouth Cruise Port last week — the third to resume operations after Ocho Rios and Montego Bay — has been hailed as a major step toward economic recovery.

Gourzong, however, remains optimistic. The river, he said, is getting closer to being ready, and with it, the promise of renewed livelihood for scores of workers and vendors who depend on the attraction.

“We are getting there,” he said.

Damaged bamboo rafts strewn on the Rafters Village premises on Wednesday.

Workmen repairing the damaged roof of a structure on the premises of Rafters Village in Martha Brae, Trelawny, on Wednesday. (Photos: Horace Hines)

A section of the Jamaica Swamp Safari attraction in Falmouth. It will have to be rebuilt.