A Canadian visitor, who admitted to overstaying his time in Jamaica, became stranded for more than 24 hours along the Holland Bamboo main road in St Elizabeth after Hurricane Melissa’s destruction left the area impassable. He had been travelling from Kingston to check on his brother’s family in Westmoreland but was forced to wait among dozens of motorists surviving on fallen coconuts. “I’m not leaving here until I get to them,” he said, describing the scene as “a terrible shock” while helping volunteers clear bamboo and debris blocking the road.

24hrs stuck in Holland Bamboo 

Stranded motorists survive on coconuts after Hurricane Melissa cuts off route

Jamaica Gleaner/31 Oct 2025/Kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com

DOZENS OF motorists and emergency responders were stranded for more than 24 hours along the Holland Bamboo main road in St Elizabeth since Wednesday, surviving on fallen coconuts after Hurricane Melissa devastated the popular stretch, cutting off ac- cess to the west.

A two-mile backup of traffic, including several ambulances, an army escort vehicle, and heavyduty trucks, stretched toward Middle Quarters as volunteers armed with chainsaws and machetes struggled to clear the towering bamboo debris scattered across the roadway on Thursday.

“We’ve just been having coconut water and coconut. That’s all. One and two people may volunteer and give you a water, or if they can find a snack, but otherwise, you’re practically on your own,” Natalia Taylor told The Gleaner on Thursday.

“This is Holland Bamboo. There’s no shop, no restaurant, nobody naah drive ‘round and feed you. So we drink coconut water till we tired and confused,” she added.

Taylor, who had been travelling home to Middle Quarters from her workplace in Junction after the passage of the Category Five storm, said the experience was mentally and physically draining.

She admitted that she was terrified for her family’s safety, unsure whether her home had survived the hurricane. With cellphone service down across much of St Elizabeth, she had no way to contact them.

Bewildered and so close to

home, she said she could not turn back.

“We nuh have no signal. Can’t send out text, no Whatsapp. Nothing. Stuck in the Bamboo. It makes no sense I turn back because I’m almost at Middle Quarters,” she said.

“I am a mess in my head. It’s shuffled like how you see Holland Bamboo now. My thoughts, everything, jumbled. I don’t know if my house is safe. I don’t know if my kids are okay. I’m confused and worried. Me want to go home,” the woman said.

Taylor sat with three men under a concrete shed, their vehicles parked nearby with engines off. Around them, the ground was littered with coconut shells, food wrappers, and splintered bamboo, the smell of which punctuated the air.

One of the men, a visitor from Canada, had been on his way from Kingston to check on his brother’s family in Westmoreland. He said he joined volunteers clearing the road as far back as Santa Cruz and Lacovia, where downed power lines, fallen trees, and waisthigh mud made travel nearly impossible.

“My brother asked me to check on them. He’s very worried about them, and he is not hearing from them. So he asked me to check on them, so I have to get to Westmoreland. I’m not leaving here until I get to them,” he explained, requesting anonymity because he had overstayed his time abroad.

“This is a shock – a terrible shock to see all of this. The ambulances are supposed to go to Black River and carry back people to Mandeville [Regional] Hospital, but they have been stuck there from yesterday. We all have been,” he said.

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