Many say they have not received support to rebuild their homes months after the storm caused unprecedented destruction
“Before Hurricane Melissa I could have navigated life, figured things out. But since its passage, everything has just been turned upside down,” said Kerry-Ann Vickers.
Vickers was three months pregnant when Hurricane Melissa demolished parts of her home in the coastal town of Black River, in St Elizabeth, west Jamaica, last October. Nearly six months on, Vickers, 25, is still struggling to get support to rebuild her house and is distraught that her baby will arrive in a home without a secure roof.
The single parent, who also has a six-year-old son, said she was “permanently traumatised” when the record-breaking storm rained unprecedented destruction on Jamaica, forcing her and her family to flee for shelter. Today she worries that life will never return to normal.
“There are days where I just sit and stare out into the abyss because I don’t know what to do, how I’m going to move forward … everywhere I look, it’s just depression,” she said.
