Fisherman loses roof, but not hope

Although Hurricane Melissa angrily ripped the roof off his house and destroyed the majority of his furniture, Rocky Point, Clarendon fisherman Jessie Samuels said he would start his boat this morning and head to the Pedro Cays.

"Mi can't even watch what happen to the house right now, mi just a get mi self ready to go sea. Mi can't sit down and wait on better to come and mi just glad Jah make mi boat stand up on it two foot, because if it did ever damage, a would a problem that. Mi hear say Pedro Cays mash up as well, but mi need to go there and look because mi leave a lot of things out there," he said.

Samuels said he had left the cays before officials ordered mandatory evacuation but said a few of his colleagues opted to stay behind.

"Dem a di careless ones. I come from the Wednesday before the hurricane. Mi a go over tomorrow (today) to spend about five days and not the regular two months. Mi ago see if any of mi pots leave or if Melissa take them. Mi know dem probably gone but mi nah worry mi self too much, because life means hope," he said.

The fisherman said he was alone at home when Melissa spit its wrath. As he watched an old refrigerator being dragged by the current toward his yard, he prayed the flooding would not pass his gate. That prayer was answered but nature was not so kind to his house.

"What I saw was rough and only a fisherman could cross it, but mi big up Jah same way. Mi inna the house and zinc start fly off, so mi have to head to the other side. Mi say the way it sound terrible, it sound like someone a throw dynamite. We did a get the rain and breeze from Tuesday morning, but about 3 p.m. the place shook, and it sound like grenade. But a just the Father a work," he said.