Clarendon woman desperate to find family in hurricane-ravaged St Elizabeth

A Clarendon woman is making a desperate plea for help in re-establishing contact with her daughter-in-law and one-year-old grandson of Mocho, St Elizabeth, who she has been unable to reach since Hurricane Melissa ravaged sections of western Jamaica last week.

Nadine Stewart-Whyte says she last spoke with her daughter-in-law, Tommie-Ann Stone, last Tuesday — just before the Category 5 hurricane made landfall and tore through parts of St Elizabeth, one of the hardest-hit parishes.

Stone is the mother of Stewart-Whyte’s one-year-old grandson, Bellamy Whyte.

“I’m going mad. Mi have a constant headache, mi can’t stop cry,” the distraught grandmother told The Gleaner on Thursday.

She said repeated attempts to reach Stone by phone have been unsuccessful since the hurricane knocked out electricity and communication services across much of the parish.

Stewart-Whyte said she has been unable to travel to St Elizabeth because she has no means of transportation and has even turned to neighbours in her community for help finding a ride.

“Mi cyaa eat. Mi just a try hold up,” she said.

With widespread devastation being shared on social media and in news reports, Stewart-Whyte said she has been avoiding the media altogether for the sake of her mental health.

“Every time mi see something from down deh, mi heart skip a beat,” she said.

“Mi just want fi know dem alright.”

The grandmother says she is desperately hoping to have Stone and her grandson relocated to her Clarendon home.

She is appealing to anyone who may have information about Tommie-Ann Stone, her one-year-old son Bellamy Whyte, or Stone’s mother, Sonia Robinson, to contact her at 876-324-4858 or the child’s father, Vadam Whyte, at 876-784-2782.

St Elizabeth remains one of several parishes still struggling with prolonged power cuts, blocked roads, and limited phone service in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, hampering efforts by families to reconnect with loved ones.

- Olivia Brown

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