🔗 Share this article

This mayor of Black River – an area described as “ground zero” for Hurricane Melissa – has shared the immense storm surges and extensive destruction wrought by the disaster.

Speaking on the harrowing ordeal, the mayor recalled enduring the intense hurricane at an emergency operating centre.

“The entire town of Black River is devastated,” he said. “The destruction is so catastrophic that the national leader classified this area as ground zero.”

Five individuals from the town are confirmed to have died, but Solomon noted hearing reports of other deaths that remain unconfirmed due to communication and transportation challenges.

“Storm Melissa arrived around 8 a.m. and lasted for around nine hours, during which we were battered with heavy winds and a lot of rain,” he added.

“We experienced up to 16ft of flooding at the emergency operating centre. It was a frightening moment for us, and we were praying that it would not rise any further, because we were on the second floor, and I tell you, when we saw the water rising, it was a scary experience for us.”

The mayor explained that Black River, situated in the hard-hit southwest region of St Elizabeth, is without running water and electricity, and most structures have had their roofs. An authority previously described the town as flooded, with more than half a million residents lacking electricity. A landslide has obstructed the primary routes of Santa Cruz, where roadways have been turned to mud pits. Locals are now removing water from their houses and attempting to rescue their belongings.

Rescue efforts and evaluations have proven extremely difficult because all the town’s vehicles and essential facilities such as firefighting, police, medical centers and supermarkets were “immensely damaged,” notes the mayor.

He is now concentrating on working to assist the neediest residents, while also coping with the individual toll of the devastation.

“The mayor's car was completely submerged by water. The roofing went, so I do understand the suffering that people are feeling, but what is a priority for me now is to concentrate on getting aid relief for the most at-risk at this point,” he says.

Solomon believes that it will take billions of Jamaican dollars to rebuild Black River after the hurricane's destruction. For now, he says, the main goal is removing debris from blocked routes, which have isolated the town.

“Efforts are underway to get the main roads and secondary routes here so that we can deliver relief supplies in. The majority of our supermarkets, if not all, were severely affected so they won’t be able to offer goods to individuals who are in need at this moment,” he adds.

National leadership has witnessed the devastation personally, with an aerial tour of the region revealing 80 to 90% of roofs in the area had been destroyed.

“This will be a enormous undertaking to restore this historic town. But while it is destroyed, we can vision a tomorrow of it rising more resilient and better,” he told reporters.

“It will be accomplished. So maintain the optimism, remain hopeful, and we will overcome this challenge, and we will rebuild better,” he affirmed.