Edwin Allen and Clarendon NW’s fight to recovery

Before Hurricane Melissa made landfall, administrators at Edwin Allen High School decided to send home some 120 students who boarded on campus. Now, in the aftermath of the Category Five storm – which left more than half of those students homeless – school leaders are scrambling to bring them back and provide them with well-needed shelter.

But there’s a major obstacle: the dormitories, along with several other buildings at the Frankfield, Clarendon-based school, have been severely damaged. With no electricity, running water, or Internet access, administrators say they are in a desperate race to restore accommodations and resume classes.

Serving over 2,000 students, Edwin Allen is one of Clarendon’s largest schools. Last Friday, the campus mirrored the devastation seen across Frankfield and other northern Clarendon farming communities – roofless homes, flooded farms, and residents struggling to piece their lives back together.

Two weeks after the hurricane, toppled utility poles and impassable roads still define the landscape. Flooded sinkholes threaten the region’s main source of income – farming. Yet amid the destruction, residents remain remarkably resilient.

“Whether or not the school is fully repaired, if it even means that we are going to have classes under the trees, we are going to have to reopen soon. Having the students out for any protracted period will put them at a serious disadvantage,” stressed Principal Jermaine Harris on Friday, still mindful of the mental health impact of the hurricane on students and staff, many of whom are from more badly damaged western parishes.

“Our immediate need is to get back the roof, which the ministry is [handling], and to preserve the items in the refrigerator. So also, we really need a commercial generator. That is our major challenge now,” continued Harris, listing restored electricity, water and Internet connection as others.

“Tough times call for tough thinking,” he added, explaining that tarpaulin is being used for makeshift roofs and windows.

SPORTS PROGRAMME AFFECTED

The school’s sports programme is also in ruins – a painful blow after earning second place for girls at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Girls Althletics Championships, seeing record Caribbean Examinations Council exam results, and celebrating its 61st anniversary this year.

Harris said the plan is to reopen with counselling sessions on Monday, followed by the gradual return of senior and then lower-grade students.

At John Austin All-Age School in Pennants, Acting Principal Kaye Griffiths faces even more uncertainty. With no power in most nearby communities, she cannot say when her 150 students will return to class.

“We are limited in getting to our students ... . We are hoping that we will get electricity soon so we can be back as soon as possible, but until then, we are just waiting to see what other plans we can put in place. Just a few people here have electricity, and those who do, it’s just since last night,” she explained last Friday.

She added that the extended closure is already setting them back academically.

“We lost [power] a few days before the hurricane, then it (hurricane) came, and this is another week. It is definitely going to push us back. So we have to try and see how we can make up going forward.”

Member of Parliament for Clarendon North Central, Robert Morgan, said priority is on restoring utilities, repairing impassable or dangerous roadways, and providing food for the elderly, shut-ins, pregnant and disabled. Already, he said, his teams have distributed more than 500 care packages provided by the Government and volunteers.

“But it is a crisis because there is the absence of the two most basic amenities for survival,” he outlined. “Without electricity, people cannot store [certain] food, and, more critically, pump water from nearby wells. So we are talking with members of the private sector to see how best we can get some generators. Additionally, we got $1.5 million from the Government, and we have started trucking water.”

He noted that though hauling it from May Pen is costly, but priority is placed on health facilities and other vital infrastructure.

“We are coming back together as a community. I have a team out there in every division doing their surveys, working with people, finding out the issues so that when the time comes, we can report it back to the ministries to find out what help we can give to the people,” continued Morgan, who said he has been in constant dialogue with the National Water Commission, the Jamaica Public Service, and the National Works Agency to fast-track restoration projects in the area.

Richard Azan, opposition MP for North West Clarendon, painted a more grim picture – one of chaos in getting help to constituents, particularly farmers, most affected by the hurricane.

“One of the major problems I’ve had as a member of parliament is that we don’t know exactly who to speak to. You are getting all types of runaround, hearing that this or that agency is responsible. And when you go there, you can’t hear anything. I can’t even tell you who is coordinating the relief efforts,” he fumed, listing several nuanced issues affecting residents, contractors, and others trying to help on the ground.

“The prime minister announced a $7-million budget for North Western Clarendon to help with roofs, and they are saying that each person should get $70,000 ... Just materials alone for one person whose house was not even severely damaged is $350,000. So when you tell me to give someone $70,000, it cannot work!

“Persons who are to truck the water to the areas say they can’t work with the proposed rates, and they are not sure they will get paid because they worked in Hurricane Beryl last year and didn’t get paid,”Azan said. “Now, they are hearing that ‘it is a national disaster and they have to just help’. But you can’t help, and you have to buy the water, sterilise the trucks, and all of that. So it is a real issue on the ground.”

Up to the weekend, he said teams were still clearing roadblocks and awaiting promised food packages from the Government.

In the meantime, Frankfield Town vendors Thelma James and Paulette Bryan, whose farms and suppliers were decimated by the storm, were still thankful, though they admitted there are not many things to sell, and not many people to buy.

“People are buying likkle-likkle. Like a one-pound or a half-pound of yams, ‘cause everything blow down. It was damaged, but thank God the house is still standing and my life is saved. Although at one point. I turned hostage; I couldn’t come out,” joked Thelma, the elder of the two women.

“My whole farm blow down, and I lost mostly plantain, a whole heap of bananas. My fowl coop mash up and I lost about 40 chickens, but I put back some zincs on it,” added Bryan, also high-spirited and positive.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com