BY JONIQUE GAYNOR, Staff Reporter
Left:
Rose Reece, sister of Donovan Carnegie who died with his three children in a landslide during the passage of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 recalls that sad day she lost her brother and her nieces and nephew on Tuesday August 23, 2005. - RICARDO MAKYN.
Right: Victims of Hurricane Ivan in Clarendon. - IAN ALLEN
TWO YEARS AGO, Donald Carnegie lived a happy life with his three children. But Hurricane Ivan was to change all that. All four died after trees from a slope fell onto their one -room house trapping them inside.
Carnegie was found on his bed embracing two of his children. Friends and relatives also came across boiled dumplings and a tin of mackerel: elements of the meal Carnegie had been preparing for his children.The family had moved into the unfinished house because they thought it would be safer than the board house they had been living in.
The spot where Donald Carnegie's house once stood is now covered by bushes. His family decided to tear down what was left of his house because the very structure reminded them of the horrifying events brought on by Hurricane Ivan on September 11, 2004.
PAIN STILL FRESH
Almost two years after the incident, the pain is still fresh and Carnegie's family is still hurting. When THE STAR visited the community, Carnegie's brother-in-law, Michael Reese, admitted that the new hurricane season reminded the family of the disaster. He said he and his wife have tried to reinforce their own house since the Hurricane. "I started building a stone wall to support my house last year. It cost me $300,000. We take it from deep in the ground so it can hold up the house. Since we start building the wall, we nuh have no landslide."
Reese said last year's hurricanes "weren't bad" but "when hurricane a come, everybody fret." And even though he has witnessed first hand, how devastating hurricanes can be, he is not considering moving. "I built my house, so now to have to move, kinda rough. I have lived here before Gilbert. I might run out and go somewhere worse." He added that there was no designated shelter in his community but asssumed that in emergencies, the churches would be used. This is not much comfort however, as he is not confident in the churches' ability to withstand disaster. This hurricane season, Reese will stay at home and cross his fingers.
Grief is also a part of Rebecca Wilson's everyday life and no one can forget her heart-wrenching story. Like many residents of Portland Cottage, Clarendon, Wilson's life was turned upside down when Hurricane Ivan hit in 2004. But her story did not end in the destruction of property and temporary dislocation, Wilson lost two of her most treasured assets.
Two year-old Lissan and four-year-old Tiffany, Wilson's two girls, were swept from her arms by a deadly storm surge. And though it has been almost two years since the tragedy, and just over nine months since the birth of another daughter, Wilson says, "it rough, cause all now mi nuh get over mi two baby dem."
HARD TO OVERCOME
Wilson, her eight-year-old son and the children's father, Uroy Thompson, now live in a one- room board building attached to their small grocery shop and Uroy operates a makeshift barber salon. Their original home was wrecked by the hurricane but they managed to rebound with the help of friends. Both parents agree that it is hard to overcome the death of the girls, especially when they live just a few feet from where the tragedy occured. Thompson recalled the last moments he spent with his daughters, "Wi did ova deh so [gesturing to the left] and di sea jus come ova di road and swallow wi up and carry wi whe."
NO WATER, NO LIGHT
Since the disaster, the family has received a 'Food for the Poor' house but Wilson says, "mi nuh really like it. A di same board house like dis, but if it come to the test, mi haffi go move cause ya so nuh tan good at all." She also added that there was no water or electricity at the new house and that she did not think it would be much safer than where she was now living. She says she has no relatives she could stay with and lamented that she received no help from the authorities. "Mi see dem a issue out grant, but mi nuh get none and a mi family did haffi help mi wid di funeral." Thompson agreed and said, "Mi have two likkle baby whe dead and dem not even carry two flowers go put pan di tomb."
Business at the shop is slow and it is hard to find enough money to send 'JT', their son, to school. Thompson also spoke of his failed attempts to get his son on the school's lunch programme. "Mi nuh want move mi shop go up deh so [new house], because it a go slow. Di people dem up deh naw work." But even though they are not sure where they will be going to this hurricane season, Thompson told THE STAR, "mi know mi a go leave, cause mi naw go stay an mek nuttn' happen to mi baby dem again. If a nedda storm hit we again, mi nuh know wha a go happen. Ya so flat ennuh, so when rain fall, all di shop flood out. But mi have God wid mi an him a go keep mi through."
He says he worries about this new hurricane season and what it might bring his way. "Mi consider more time cau mi wan relocate because when rain fall roun ya, it nuh pretty an whe dem wan carry wi go,a di same kind a water place. Mi nuh kno wah a go happen still, but God naw mek 'im pickney dem suffa."
Do
you have a problem? Is something bothering
you? Write to 
