Treacherous walk home - Rural St Andrew community almost totally cut off following Melissa

At first glance, one could easily assume that Karen Arnold is splurging in profits from her fully packed shop in Middleton Settlement, East Rural St Andrew.

But, according to the owner and operator of Karen's One Stop, she is making way less than she spends. The soft-spoken shopkeeper is not complaining, however, as she is merely giving back to her loyal customers.

"I am not making any money at all, I am losing but I just settle for helping my customers. Right now I am not thinking about a profit but more the need of my community members. I have compassion for them so I don't raise any of my prices, everything remains the same," Arnold said.

Middleton Settlement, which is located between Newcastle and Irish Town, is approximately a 45-minute drive from Papine. The area, however, has been severely affected by Hurricane Melissa with broken roads and landslides. This has made the district difficult to access, leaving residents, including Arnold, forced to walk for extended periods to get to other areas. On Sunday, residents pooled together to make a pathway which eased their transportation burden a bit. But, traversing to Kingston entails crossing the Back Ass River, and climbing up the narrow, treacherous mountain for close to two hours to Red Light district. Another option is to travel through Portland, but that is time-consuming.

"If we should go Buff Bay, it can take up to four and a half hours and if we go Red Light and fi send over our goods, it may take about two hours, and we have to cross the river with the goods dem. I have to pay the young men them to carry the things over. It's $1,000 for each piece of goods yuh have. A case of water cost mi $1,400 and I have to pay the $1,000 same way," Arnold said.

Electricity is yet to be restored in Middleton Settlement and this has placed a huge dent in Arnold's pockets. She told THE STAR that she has spent almost 10 times what she would have paid yearly in a month's worth of gasolene for her generator.

"Since Melissa, I have spent close to a $100,000 just to buy gas for the generator and it's not one month since the storm pass. On top of that, we have to pay people to carry the gas to mi, and under normal circumstances, both my light bills would not come to $10,000. I have a meter for the shop and one for the house, so what I sometimes pay for the year is what I am paying for the month," she said.

In 2022, Everald Warmington who was then minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, made an eyebrow-raising suggestion of relocating persons from remote communities where "very few people" live, as an alternative to expending billions of dollars to fix the infrastructure leading to these areas. But Arnold said they are not going anywhere, adding that their roads will be repaired in due time.

"Our road is going to be fixed eventually and so far, we the community members are playing our part. We went out in our numbers on Sunday and created a path so pedestrians and bikers could pass. The political representative came and look and yes, we could say we want road as soon as possible, but we not gonna get it until it's possible," she said.

"We don't have any electricity but I am really giving thanks because I live between two rivers and there are persons down in the west who can't find a cork full of water, so I am giving thanks. Our feet now is our only carriage, so we just have to walk. I am doing fine," she added with a smile.