Worse storm ever says occupants at Fair Hall Emergency Shelter

Frightening, shocked, and disheartened are just a few of the words being used by some emergency shelter occupants to describe their experience and aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.

The passage of the Category 4 hurricane has forced over 1490 persons into 68 shelters throughout the mainland and the Grenadines. The Grenadines appear to have borne the brunt of Beryl’s fury, with initial reports indicating that over 90 percent of the houses on Union Island have been severely damaged or destroyed.

Jennifer Edwards

“My whole roof gone…” Glen resident, Jennifer Edwards, told SEARCHLIGHT on Tuesday, July 2, from the Fairhall Government School where she and several of her family members sought refuge from the storm.

“I lost everything; this one (hurricane) is ridiculous, you could write a record about it, is the worse one I ever experience,” Edwards lamented from her seat at a table at the Fair Hall Government School.

Edwards, whose daughter Jennisha Raguette, also was housed at the emergency shelter said she was forced to take refuge there when the hurricane winds tore off her roof on Monday. It sent all 10 members of her household, including her 80-year-old father who cannot walk, scampering for safety.

“Only water come out my eye,” she said, when asked about her reaction to seeing her house and its contents destroyed.

Edwards, a farmer, also said that apart from losing her home and its contents, her plantain and tomato crops were destroyed and her fowls died, damaging her sources of income.

“I will like to get some help, clothes, mattress, I don’t even have anything to sleep on. My TV gone, fridge gone, everything gone. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know where to turn.”

This woman’s agony of grief and loss is replicated by hundreds of people in SVG.

Kellorn Scott

Kellorn Scott, also housed at the Fairhall Government School emergency shelter, said the hurricane took her roof and “cracked” her house.

“ I see the roof fell out from the bedroom, so I started to gather up my things, and then the other half of the roof went, and I see the other side lift up and my son came and try put it back,” Scott who is unemployed, said of the devastation that traumatized the six people in her household.

“We have no gas, no food, the house crack, we need help,” as she recalled living through another storm

“ When I was younger living in Lowmans, we had a storm and I run and hide in the house and bawl. I experienced others, but not like this. Compared to this- this one was very bad, nuff rain don’t come, is the wind,” Scott said.

Annette Lucas a resident of Glen who also was at the shelter, said her roof is intact but her home was flooded. She too has experienced storms, but nothing of this nature.

“I got to see the different direction winds was blowing at the same time, and saw a couple houses torn down…this was a bad experience,” she said.

Annette Lucas