Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

Karen Elliot and four of her five children in a shelter at the Old Harbour Bay Community Centre in St. Catherine, yesterday. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

SPANISH TOWN, St. Catherine:

Can you imagine losing two homes in the space of three years - one to fire and the other to a raging sea - and now living almost open to the elements?

This is the reality facing Karen Elliot, a 39-year-old mother of five, who has been occupying the dilapidated Old Harbour Bay Community Centre with her children since the passage of Hurricane Dean on August 19, which washed away her house in Old Harbour Bay.

"I feel hurt, I feel helpless, knowing that I have to be living under these conditions, and it is even worse, there seems to be no immediate help for us," said Elliot, while surrounded by her children, Kalia, Anthony, Natalia and Karma and baby JT, age four months to 11 years old.

Elliot, who was born in Chapelton, Clarendon, told The Gleaner it was almost a miracle that she and her children had been able to survive the wrath of the hurricane.

They escaped with just a barrel containing items of clothing, a mattress and a piece of board and seven one gallon plastic bottles which have been placed in an area that is used as a kitchen.

no food

However, there is no obvious food in sight. To add to all that, the greater portion of the roof at the community centre is missing, with tarpaulin and pieces of plastic in its place, leaving the family at the mercy of the rain whenever there is a downpour.

"I have to just hug my children and lay on the bed and they start to scream when they heard the thunder, and I just prayed for them," she said, remembering Thursday, the day of the heaviest rainfall since last Saturday.

Elliot said she hoped to get assistance to send her children to school regularly, to prevent them facing a fate similar to hers when they become adults. Her own best bet, she said, was selling flowers since she could not read well.