“Hurricane Melissa Did a Number on Us” 

Featured image: image courtesy of Pixabay

When the 185mph winds of Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica on the 28^th October it destroyed homes, hospitals, schools, and turned the lives of 1.5 million people upside down, and Tracey-Ann Chevannes, 50, from Runaway Bay, is one of them

The next morning, I found the home I built and lived in for 12 years flat on the ground. I lost everything. The roof was gone, my clothes were under the rubble, and everything went all over the place, even the toilet bowl was torn up and pushed to another part of the house. It was a big mess. 80 days later I still don’t have my life back. 

Three days before the disaster, I was on a tour guide job in Negril, on the West Coast, doing the job I loved for over 30 years now. We have already been checking it the past couple of days, since we were warned about it through the government hurricane alert system. By then, we were having irregular weather, thunderstorms, heavy rains, wind and all that. I started watching it and I was like hell no! I’m not staying on this side of the island. I’m going home. I had one other small problem though: my house is made of wood. I knew my son, Matthew, and I weren’t safe, and we had to evacuate immediately. 

Before we left, I did all the needed preparations to protect my house and everything in it, you know, the regular things that we normally do during a hurricane, but that still didn’t save my home from Melissa. Based on government advice, I stocked up on drinking water and food, but most supermarkets already ran out of food by the time I went. I sealed the windows by pinning zinc boards onto them, packed everything that could be packed in plastic containers, and whatever is left out is just left out. There’s nothing else I could do. 

When it comes to a disaster, I don’t think about favourite clothes or shoes; I think about my life. All what I took with me was the necessities, like my birth certificate and all other important documents, you know the irreplaceable ones, most importantly though was my son’s medication, I made sure I had it all. The only thing I was struggling to leave behind was Cat Face, my kitten, because she was only a couple of weeks old. I couldn’t leave her by herself there, so I took her with me. I left Brown Girl and Smiley, my dogs, though. They are big and know how to handle it, trust me. 

I took my son and went to my friend’s house, Jeff, who lives in Canada, but he gave us rescue at his house which is 20 minutes away from mine. Two days after arriving at Jeff’s, the power got cut on us. It was to make sure fires won’t start in the situation of electricity poles falling down, which they did. We didn’t have any phone service either, but at least we had the internet, although it was really weak, but it was still there. I couldn’t stop myself from constantly tracking the hurricane and watching it and watching it and watching it. Despite that Jeff’s house has a stronger structure than mine, I had to call my brother Allan to pick up Matthew and I to take us to an even bigger, concrete house after an update of government advice about the severity of the hurricane. This was the night before the hurricane and after that, there was nothing left to do, but wait for the inevitable. 

Then, Melissa arrived. It was in the afternoon of the following day of the power cut. I was like, holy cow. In less than two minutes, the whole place went black. It was really dark, and there was lots of rain and wind which was just making a whole bunch of songs and howling. We couldn’t even open the door, that’s how hard the wind was going. I stood and watched the hurricane bend and tear down concrete poles and buildings, taking people’s houses down, and I even saw a dog that flung down the road. My God, that poor dog! He was trying to get to shelter, and the wind just took him off like a bird. I really felt it for that dog, but what could I do? 

It was horrible, trust me. I was so scared. I mean I’m brave, I’m a dare devil, but on that game right here, I was scared. My scare is just a stare, no sweating, no nothing, just that stare. A gaze of trying to believe that that was really happening in front of me. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in Jamaica. I wondered if we’re going to make it, I even thought this could get Jamaica off the map. 

At some point, me and my brother were negotiating jumping in the car and running away. I know this sounds ridiculous now, but if you felt the ground shaking under you while seeing the building in front of you looking like it’s about to collapse on you, and the windows of the house you’re in are flying away, you would understand. I couldn’t do nothing though, so what am I going to just sit down scared? No, I took it with a smile. We were eating, drinking rum and making fun of the hurricane because we couldn’t do anything else. When we would hear something crash, we would say, oh my god, I wonder whose house is that. This is how I coped, because we couldn’t stop it from happening, so what’s the point when you’re going to have to deal with it the day after. That’s me, I make light of a bad situation. 

It got worse in the night; we saw more of Melissa. It started to get more windy, more rainy and we heard more breaking sounds over the night. After this peak, the rain and wind gradually got less until Melissa set sail off our island a few hours before dawn. 

“I thought this could get Jamaica off the map”

The next morning, as soon as it was light, I got in my brother’s car and began the drive to my house. I was devastated while driving through the damages and destruction of Melissa. Collapsed houses, houses with no roofs, and even the trees were ripped from their roots on to the ground. As we were driving, everybody was coming out of their houses to check what happened or cut the trees to clear the roads and help us through. Then when I reached, I could see my house, but I couldn’t see the top of it. It was all down. That moment was my hardest shock, I didn’t expect it to be that rough. I felt deep sadness in my heart, but what am I going to do? I had to just muster that strength up to start all over. It was a big mess. 

My dogs were fine and safe though, they slept inside the house so nobody could vandalize it. When I came back, they were just wagging their tails waiting for me. I was happy to see them, and they were too. 

Everyone was helping everyone as much as they could. Some people sent me food, my friend Jeff came back from Canada and helped with rebuilding my house, alongside the people I hired to do it. I am just grateful I have a roof over my head now. 

For days we couldn’t make calls, I had to go to an area where we could get service on our phones and once, I did my phone was just going message after message. Everybody was calling at the same time and I would just answer one person and put the next one on hold. It wasn’t until a week before Christmas when we got electricity back in my area. And then there are places in Jamaica that still have no electricity. They got it really bad. Melissa did a number on us, trust me! There’re still so many people that need help, they need a roof, food, clothing and jobs. I don’t have a job at the moment either. Thank be to God, my sewing machines weren’t badly damaged and my hobby of making cushions became my job now. Melissa didn’t segregate. It didn’t, segregate the rich from the poor, It’s like a restart for everybody. This is an experience I wouldn’t ask anybody to try, and I would never want to live through that again. Never!