Parottee residents call for counselling following traumatic Hurricane Melissa

Residents of Parottee in St Elizabeth are calling for urgent counselling as they grapple with the trauma and loss caused by Hurricane Melissa, which ravaged their homes and upended their lives.

Ranny Bennett, a fisherman and deacon of the Parottee Seventh-day Adventist Church said his livelihood has now been suspended as the category five storm caused damage to his boats and destroyed his furniture.

The grief from the devastation is palpable throughout the community, he said.

“If you talk to persons and they telling you what they have lost, you will see a lot of them start to cry because some don't know where or when to start. Their livelihood have just been deteriorated, everything just gone,” he stated.

“People are talking to themselves, people crying….we need somebody to come and help, talk to them, they need that urgently,” he added.

Even as she struggles with the difficult circumstances Hurricane Melissa has left her in, including the damage to her home, Petrula Evans says the mental strain is now taking a physical toll. She is experiencing bouts of dizziness and weakness in her eyes.

She said her mother and other community members are grappling with the same issue.

“Some people a look out a space a talk to themselves, even my mother, she only siddung a talk to herself, people need urgent help cause everything gone,” she said.

Hurricane Melissa tore through the island on October 28, destroying nearly 150,000 homes and impacting approximately 900,000 people. Early estimates point to US$8 billion in physical damage.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness, on November 1, announced that it will be embarking on an initiative to provide mental health support to persons affected psychologically by the hurricane, particularly in the hardest-hit parishes.

St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St James, Hanover, and Trelawny are among the most severely impacted parishes.

- Sashana Small

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