The bulldozers may have moved on, but displaced residents of Coopers Pen in Trelawny are sitting in unbearable heat and face a future of uncertainty.
After their first night on the hot canvas, the anguish of an uprooted life boiled over into Wednesday, prompting the residents to protest and demand relocation.
The dust may have settled from the demolition, but the distress for displaced families is far from finished. With rising temperatures and little relief from the heat, Paulette Williams is among women, men and children who spent their first nights under tents, wondering where they will sleep next week.
“We want di Prime Minister fi come see. Fifty-one years mi live a Coopers Pen and a di first dis ever happen. Now mi have fi leave, mi and mi how much pickeney,” said one resident.
Another resident, Sylvia Fisher, said the authorities must assist with relocating those affected.
“We want dem fi find some weh and put wi. Wi need dat. Wi dun know seh a private land; we did know, but wi never know seh dem woulda come pon wi suh,” she admitted, still stressing that residents were not given notice.
Less than 12 hours before their protest, the newly homeless residents endured their first uneasy sleep beneath makeshift coverings that offered little shelter and no reprieve from the suffocating heat.
“Last night weh hot man. A bun up proper, mi a tell yuh…. Wi nah no light and wi cyah plug in nutn,” said Desmond, who added that he and the other displaced residents have been using water they received from a truck.
And with belongings as strewn across the rubble, among them as school supplies and uniforms, an anxious Malita Fraser is now worried about her children’s readiness when the new school term begins in less than a month.
“I need help right now because all of my kids’ textbooks, they’re all mashed up by the tractor that run over our house – the bag, shoes, uniform, etc. fridge, everything, name it.”
Added to that, another resident, Jessica, said the fear of an extra round of demolition lingers.
“Them seh two weeks time. We cyah sidung and wait pon dem fi come. Wi haffi go out. Wi want relocation. We can’t live like this…we are human beings,” she declared.
Member of Parliament for Trelawny Northern, Tova Hamilton, has come under heavy criticism from People’s National Party chairman, Dennis Meadows, who argued that the makeshift shelters are not enough to ease the plight of the residents.
“The people here of Coopers Pen deserve better. They were deceived. The Member of Parliament was missing all throughout the demolition, right? And then you appear in the evening, coming with post-dated food, stale food and makeshift tents, right? The question is where were these tents during the hurricane when people needed them badly. Now, you come with them, they are ovens. What you going to do for sanitary convenience here, having wrecked the place. Look at this, it’s like a bomb dropped here.”
“The precedent [has] already been set when the houses were demolished in Clifton, right, the Prime Minister went and provided compensation for those affected. I said in the interim measure, these people need to start rebuilding their lives. In the interim, at the very minimum, provide some compensation for these people, so they can’t start [to] rebuild,” Mr. Meadows demanded.