Portmore mayor delivers relief in hurricane-battered Hanover

WESTERN BUREAU:

Portmore Mayor Leon Thomas became an instant hero to scores of residents in Haughton Court and surrounding communities in western Hanover on Monday when he arrived with a truckload of desperately needed relief supplies – the first assistance many had received since Hurricane Melissa struck on October 28.

“Thank God for Mayor Thomas and his team because we have been suffering without help since the passage of Hurricane Melissa,” said Fay McIntosh, reflecting on the numerous destroyed homes and farms, which has left many without food and shelter. “Before Mayor Thomas came today, we had received no help and we had many people going hungry.”

Thomas, who left St Catherine about 5 a.m. and arrived in Hanover shortly after 10 a.m. with a team of 42 volunteers, brought food packages, sanitary supplies, soap, bleach, coal, bedding, blankets, water, ply boards, building materials, and a special team of 15 men to operate chain saws to help clear blocked roadways and remove trees that had fallen on houses.

According to Thomas, in tracking social media, his staff at the municipality noticed that, despite numerous Instagram posts with residents of western Hanover pleading for help, they were not getting much assistance, so the Portmore Municipal Corporation took the decision to answer the call for help the Hanover.

“We were watching social media, and we see a lot of support going to Westmoreland, St Elizabeth and Trelawny, and we were hardly hearing Hanover, so at the municipal corporation, the staff said let us choose Hanover, so we choose Hanover,” said Thomas, who said he had seen many videos with people from Hanover begging for assistance.

While some residents were elated that Thomas and his team had come to their assistance, they were quite critical of the Government and some of the state agencies, accusing them of playing politics with the distribution of relief supplies. They claimed that Hanover was being punished for replacing the two Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) members of parliament with two representatives from the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) in the recent general election.

However, Thomas steered clear of the political rancouring, saying the support he had brought to Hanover had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the pleas for help on social media.

“We came here to assist the people with their needs. It doesn’t matter if its PNP, JLP or no ‘P” at all. We are here to serve everybody,” said Thomas.

LACK OF SUPPORT FROM OFFICIALS

In graciously accepting the support, Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels used the opportunity to bemoan the neglect and lack of support from officialdom, saying that since receiving an allocation of $250,000 before the hurricane, the parish has received nothing more.

“At the municipal corporation level, we are not seeing anything coming in terms of giving support for food supplies … . We got an allocation of $250,000 before the storm, that is now well exhausted now. People are hungry and need help, so I want to thank our colleagues from the municipal corporation of Pormore, who see the need and came down here today to assist us here in western Hanover,” said Samuels.

“I hope the Government will see this. The corporations are not getting, the councillors are not getting anything, and when we go out there, people are crying to us for help, so I want to thank the mayor for coming,” added Samuels.

Thomas told The Gleaner that Monday’s visit to Hanover will not be a one-off exercise as his team will be taking estimates of the damage to the homes that can be salvaged as there is a plan to return to help those residents to reconstruct their homes.

Despite the desperate needs that he saw in the devastated communities, Thomas was full of praise for the residents, who were quite orderly during the distribution of the supplies, even allowing the elderly to collect first, as was requested.

A relieved-looking Councillor Brian Chambers, of the Lucea division of the HMC, who had a broad smile on his face as he watched the distribution of the items, said the period between the passage of the hurricane and the arrival of Thomas and his team, was most frustration, as being the “peoples’ government” on the ground, he felt the burden of not being able to assist them because of the absence of official support.

“The smile on my face is my first smile since the passage of Melissa because I felt so helpless not being able to do anything because we have not gotten the support we were expecting as the local government representative of the people who are rightfully looking to us for help,” he said.

adrian.frater@gleanerjm.com