Board Scheme residents look to rebuild after Melissa

When the wind came howling through Bybrooks, St Elizabeth, some residents in the area known as Board Scheme, could only run to neighbours for shelter, praying their dwellings endured the storm.

For 59-year-old Conroy Forbes that prayer was not answered, as his home and farm were flattened.

"Mi never have this ya experience because when [Hurricane] Beryl blow, the structure did stay and mi just lose one sheet a zinc weh mi just go back and go nail it. Mi neva know say this time it woulda totally destroy it," Forbes told THE STAR. What's left of his dwelling sits alone in the middle of a piece of farmland. A few pieces of rotting board lean against each other, surrounded by torn zinc sheets, and heaps of wet clothes. It's a haunting sight for a man who has spent more than 15 years trying to make a life off the land, only for nature to strip it bare.

"I lost everything, a the wet up mattress mi come sleep back inna. A people haffi give me carpet to spread on it. The fridge, the stove, the little furniture, all a it nuh have no use cause water cover them." Where his cassava and gungo once grew, there is now only mud and broken stems. The remnants of his kitchen were still visible.

"The structure collapse completely and mi nuh know how but all the gas separate from the stove and the whole a the gas blow out. If mi did inside mi woulda dead!" Forbes said. He recalled that when the winds grew violent, he was forced to flee.

"A one girl name Natalie weh have one deck top, a dung there mi go. The coop she have full a water and even the roof part a her house did a blow off, so a we and the chicken them haffi inna the house. She a one farmer too," Forbes recalled. The father of two said he had no choice but to send his sons away for safety before the storm hit.

"While me can soldier it out, mi nah risk them. Mi nuh hear from them yet because you know the phone lines still down but mi hear say dem good," he said. Now, he's left trying to piece back something livable from scraps, seeking material such as zinc and ply.

"A board or ply mi haffi use because these are farm lands we nuh have the title fi do anything. The government will make us live here and farm the land but we can't put anything concrete. That's why dem call in here Board Scheme. If you see a concrete house, dem get the order fi do it," he explained. Still, Forbes refuses to abandon the land he calls home, as he has nowhere else to go.

"Like how a storm, people will give you a shelter, but once it gone and sun start shine, you haffi try build back a nest for yourself. Mi really need some help so my sons can come back home," he said. His closest neighbour Addine Smalling, 55, is battling her own heartbreak, as her two-bedroom house also lost its roof.

"When me come back the zinc dem gone, so me and my son just haffi patch it up with what left," said Smalling, who had sought safety at a relative's home in Braes River.

"Seven of us live here and three are children. We haffi dry what books we can dry and dry the bed and mattress dem fi them sleep pon. Me sleep through the storm, so when me come down here and see the damage mi couldn't believe. All the fowl coop mash dung," she said. She also thanked Forbes for giving a helping hand.

"A him come help me out although him lose everything," she said. Her son Chevan Wright lamented that the board structures cannot withstand heavy wind.

"If we get the go-ahead from government, we can work on building concrete houses we stronger, because if we build back board, it ago be the same thing."