PAROTTEE, St Elizabeth —A year after Hurricane Melissa destroyed homes here some residents of this coastal community are rebuilding mere metres from where their houses once stood despite warnings that the area is unsafe.

Parottee, which is a few kilometres south-east of Black River still shows the lingering effects of Melissa with battered and demolished houses, and graves disturbed.

The official plan is for residents of the coastal town to be relocated to Luana some 10 kilometres away, but many are adamant they will not move.

Instead, they are rebuilding in the low-lying seaside community where they make their livelihood as fisherfolk and boat tour operators.

Parottee resident Windell Daley removing sand from one of five graves in what was once his backyard. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

“I am getting back on with life, business is slowly picking up, and we are doing our fishing. Everybody is rebuilding, even my neighbour, my aunt is also trying to get back on with her life. Nobody wants to relocate. People want to get back with their regular livelihood,” Ridge Harvey told the Jamaica Observer as he stood near two houses under construction.

He said one of the houses, a two-floor structure, is being built adjacent to where the sea flattened another building while the other structure is being constructed against a pond.

Harvey, who operates Captain Ridge boat tours, pointed to the resourcefulness of residents in Parottee.

Parottee resident Ridge Harvey speaking with the Jamaica Observer last Friday. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

“We have our loved ones [buried] here. I have my aunt, my cousins, so that is why we don’t want to leave. We love Parottee. We live off the sea, the pond, and tourism. We love Parottee and we want to see Parottee get back up and running and no relocation,” he said in reference to the Government’s offer to relocate residents to Luana.

“We have to build back and get on with our lives. People are really trying. Hurricane Melissa was a terrible hit. People are still trying to cope. You have die-hard people who love Parottee and the majority of us have our loved ones in the back of our yards, so we are not going to leave,” he added.

His neighbour, Windell Daley, who recently recovered from illness brought on by stress resulting from the Category 5 storm, recounted how it negatively changed his life.

“A year later it is almost the same, because I don’t get any help. Lots of people got money… When the storm was on I was at Newell [shelter] and a guy came and said my whole house is gone, and it brought a pain in the hip, and I called my wife to help put me on the bed, and we went to Mandeville Hospital from that,” he said.

Damaged and abandoned, this house serves as a daily reminder of the fury which Hurricane Melissa unleashed on Parottee one year ago. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Daley said he is willing to relocate to another section of Parottee where he has land, but his children think differently.

“I lived here, but I have somewhere else where I can be rebuilt in Parottee. My daughters said it is here they were born and raised, so they are not moving, but me and my wife we will go up to the top, but we just need the start,” he said while watching workmen build a house for his daughter across the road from where his house once stood.

“We need somewhere that we can put our head under. I would be glad if the Government could give us a hand, because all now we don’t get a dollar from anybody at all,” said Daley.

He said the livelihood of fishing is still vibrant in Parottee with residents utilising the sea and the pond for a living.

“We catch every type of fish over there. The only type of fish we don’t catch over there is goat fish,” he said.

He also hopes to get help to restore five graves now buried in sand.

“The hurricane damaged the graves. We were going to get them straightened and dig away the sand, but the man who was to help me with his tractor was shot [and killed] in Knoxwood,” he said in reference to the October 7 murder of businessman Carl Brown.