Freezing winds bring back hurricane horror

A biting cold front has rehashed painful memories of Hurricane Melissa for storm survivors sheltering at Petersfield High School in central Westmoreland. last October -- as they nervously wait out the latest blast of wind and rain now sweeping the island.

Across Westmoreland, 19 shelters remain open months after the hurricane made landfall on October 28, housing 174 people. Petersfield accounts for 40 of those persons, while the others are living in teachers' cottages, community centres and church-based facilities. Inside a partially shattered building on the school compound and under flapping tents outside, fear hangs thick in the cold air. Maureen Beale, formerly of Pullet Lane, said her family of six received just one blanket.

"On Sunday, dem give us one blanket per family. It nuh matter how many people inna yuh family is just one you get," she complained. "The rubble keep falling from the roof in the wind and is very cold because the place is mesh up from the front and we put up a curtain to cut off likkle breeze but it is not working."

She added, "The wind and rain in this cold front just bring back the memories of Hurricane Melissa."

Sixty-one-year-old Jennifer Anderson, who was displaced from Lime Peace district, said she thought the structure would cave in Sunday night.

"Mi swear it was another Melissa that was coming," she told THE STAR. "Right now I'm cold. Mi wish unu did carry a big blanket come give me. Mi just bathe and mi not bathing again."

Nearby, 36-year-old Shanique Johnson, once of Pullet Lane, is trying to survive in a tent with her daughter and boyfriend.

"We are sleeping under a tent, nothing that we have ever dreamt of doing until now," she said.

"Mi recently got an eye infection and mi daughter, she is 11, have a cold," Johnson disclosed. "We have something fi keep us warm, referencing their three single bed sponge mattresses and sheets."

Marcine Campbell-Kerr, disaster coordinator at the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation, said the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management began blanket distribution on Sunday, using supplies left in storage after the hurricane.

"In order to ensure we touch all shelters in the parish Sunday, we gave one blanket to the 16 families who are among the 40 shelterees at the Petersfield High School," Campbell-Kerr said. "I am currently distributing blankets to all shelters -- the aim is to ensure everyone receives a blanket to navigate the cold front."