Flood cleans out residents

Jonique Gaynor, Staff Reporter

As the new hurricane season gets under way, residents of Caribbean Terrace in eastern Kingston, have renewed fears.

The community was ravaged by storm surges in Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Dean last year and since then, residents have become fearful of the sea they once felt privileged to live next to.

abandoned homes

Since the last disaster, several residents have abandoned their homes. This is especially true of the Calypso Crescent area, which has become nothing but an overgrown street lined with empty and dilapidated houses.

When THE STAR visited this area, one solitary figure was seen. She later identified herself as Blossom Clarke. Busy clearing the area of trees, she told THE STAR: "Those who were paying have left and the owners are overseas. Everybody gone abroad. Di place abandoned now." She pointed to a house further down the road and said, "Dem jus' buy di house ennuh. Neva live in it too long."

She explained that all the abandoned houses were robbed of whatever was left in them. " Dem all tek taxi come fi di people dem tings. If yu bed nuh wash whe, dem tief it," she said.

danger

While she is not allowing herself to become burdened with the possibility of another hurricane wreaking havoc, she is not oblivious to the danger the sea poses. "Di water come in pan wi an' all tear dung wi fence. Nuff wata," she said.

But while Clarke's philosophy is "why worry, when you can pray," Vernon Thompson, who has lived in the area since 1978, is worried that with the absence of a sea wall and the damage done to private walls, there is now nothing to shield them from the sea.

He told THE STAR, "It's just talk. Nothing has been done. The last time the sea came up to the level of the sidewalk and our doorway. Some of the houses had walls to keep it out, but this time when it comes, there will be nothing to prevent it from coming through."

He said the wall which once protected them from the sea, had been damaged during Hurricane Ivan and has not been repaired. He is also concerned that the abandoned houses have become a haven for outsiders. " We have all kinds of undesirables walking through. Since the patrols [from a private security company], things have improved but these empty buildings are harbouring criminals. They come in from the seaside and from all sides," he said.

no choice

Many who have decided to stay, have done so because they have no choice. Thompson said, "We were trying to negotiate to get some money for what we have left or to find some land where we can build. I just spent millions expanding my house and it's like that money is dead. No insurance company is willing to cover it and I can't use the house as collateral and if you move, vandals will just move in and take over."