Mayor Leading Rebuilding Work at Storm Melissa's Ground Zero
This mayor of the town of Black River – a community described as “the epicenter” for Hurricane Melissa – has detailed the monstrous flooding and widespread devastation wrought by the disaster.
Speaking on the traumatic ordeal, the mayor recalled enduring the Category 5 storm at an emergency response center.
“The entire town of Black River is in ruins,” he stated. “The destruction is so severe that the prime minister designated this area as ground zero.”
Several people from Black River are reported to have died, but the mayor mentioned receiving word of additional fatalities that remain unconfirmed due to connectivity and transportation difficulties.
“The hurricane came around 8 a.m. and lasted for around several hours, during which we were pounded with heavy winds and torrential rainfall,” he explained.
“We got up to 4.8 metres of flooding at the emergency operating centre. It was a bit scary for us, and we were praying that it would not rise any more, because we were on the upper level, and frankly, when we saw the water rising, it was a scary moment for us.”
Solomon explained that Black River, situated in the hard-hit south-western region of the area, is without water and power, and most buildings have lost their roofing. An authority earlier described the town as under water, with more than 500,000 inhabitants without power. A landslide has obstructed the main roads of Santa Cruz, where roadways have been turned to mud pits. Residents are now sweeping water from their homes and trying to salvage their possessions.
Search and rescue operations and evaluations have proven almost impossible because every one of the town’s transport and essential facilities such as firefighting, police, medical centers and grocery stores were “immensely damaged,” says the mayor.
The mayor is now focused on trying to help the neediest residents, while also coping with the personal impact of the disaster.
“My vehicle was completely submerged by water. My roof was lost, so I do understand the suffering that persons are experiencing, but what is a priority for me now is to concentrate on securing aid relief for the most at-risk at this time,” he says.
The mayor estimates that it will take millions of local currency to rebuild the community after Melissa’s destruction. For now, he states, the priority is removing debris from blocked routes, which have cut off the town.
“We are now trying to get the main roads and secondary routes here so that we can get aid in. The majority of our stores, if not all, were impacted negatively so they won’t be able to provide supplies to individuals who are in dire straits at this time,” he says.
National leadership has seen the damage personally, with an flyover of the region revealing 80 to 90% of roofs in the area had been destroyed.
“This will be a massive task to rebuild this historic town. But although it is destroyed, we can envision a future of it rising more resilient and improved,” he informed local media.
“It will be accomplished. So keep the optimism, remain hopeful, and we will overcome this challenge, and we will rebuild better,” he said.
