PAROTTEE, St Elizabeth — A major debate is developing over the wisdom of residents to rebuild in this Hurricane Melissa-ravaged community which is a few kilometres south-east of the heritage-rich town of Black River.

More than five weeks after Melissa, Parottee still resembles an apocalyptic scene with battered and demolished houses, graves disturbed, and debris strewn everywhere.

Disaster experts have pointed out that the extreme vulnerability of a number of low-lying communities, including Parottee, was exposed during the passage of the Category 5 storm on October 28.

Now, parish manager for the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in St Elizabeth, Michelle Senior is questioning the practicability of rebuilding in Parottee.

“In some of these communities that are being assessed — I make reference to places like Parottee — and people are looking forward to rebuilding. A team member came back to me and said, ‘Miss, I am traumatised because the sand has covered the houses and persons are proposing to rebuild,’ ” Senior said on Thursday during the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation’s monthly meeting in Santa Cruz.

“Are we going to assess the same people next year or will the sea take them in next year? I think we really need some intervention with those communities; it is really a challenge for the people who are living there. What are the options for them? Are there any plans for these persons?” Senior asked, adding that some guidance is needed.

“They [residents] say to the team [that] next year when the hurricane comes, they are gone [but] I don’t think that is the solution because they would have already constructed or repaired their living situation. It is really a challenge for these residents in Parottee. I really think some intervention should be in place,” added Senior.

When the Jamaica Observer visited Parottee on Thursday, following the meeting of the municipal corporation, a husband and wife had differing views on rebuilding their now-crumbled house on the seaside.

“I am going to leave from here. I don’t plan on rebuilding here. I plan my mind to leave from here,” Windel Daley said while sitting in the rubble of his flattened, concrete house, looking at five graves submerged and shifted by the sea nearby.

He said there are talks about exhumations but nothing has happened so far.

“I hear that somebody came here and they said they were going to take up the graves from here, but nothing has been done yet,” said Daley.

He told the Observer that he suffered a stroke while in a hurricane shelter, and Thursday was the first time he had returned to Parottee to see the damage Melissa did to his house.

“I ended up in Mandeville [Regional] Hospital. Is the first time I come back on the sea and see my house gone,” said Daley.

But even as he voiced his determination to leave the community, which has been the family’s home for years, his wife Nesbeth Bryan-Daley was adamant that she will be staying.

“I am asking if the Government has a place to put us… So what are we going to do with our land?” questioned Bryan-Daley.

“I am not leaving. Later on I am going to see how it stay, to see if we can build on it, but we are not moving from the area right now. Is here I born and grow,” added Daley-Bryan.

She said the graves which have been disturbed by the storm contain the remains of her relatives.

“My mother, my daughter, my sister and my nephews [are there],” declared Bryan-Daley.

In the meantime, former mayor of Black River Councillor Derrick Sangster (Jamaica Labour Party, Mountainside Division) said following a consultation with Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth South Western Floyd Green, a strategy is being developed to address concerns in Parottee.

“We are planning a meeting for early next year with the residents of Parottee, in particular, to begin the way forward,” said Sangster.