Scavenging for food in streets - desperation takes hold in Jamaica after hurricane

People walk along muddied roads scavenging the wreckage for food. Others jump into damaged stores in the hope of finding bottled water or other supplies.

As the death toll rises, residents of Black River are still searching for loved ones while they also battle to survive, days after Hurricane Melissa made this Jamaican port city ground zero of the devastation seen across the Caribbean.

Residents here say they have been living in a state of chaos the last three days since Melissa slammed into them as one of the most powerful category 5 storms ever recorded in the region.

The fierce winds and storm surge that barrelled through here have decimated nearly everything, leaving roads unusable and a trail of destruction that has them increasingly desperate and isolated with no electricity or running water.

Capsized boats lie curb side. Brick buildings are split in half. Giant sheets of metal are twisted between tree branches. Vehicles sit in crumbled pieces.

Residents who spoke to the BBC said they have seen no aid trucks in the area so far and described having to eat what food they can find in debris by the roads in the coastal town, nearly 150 km (93 miles) west of Kingston.

Others made their way inside battered supermarkets, taking what they could for themselves. Some, who climbed on top of one partially destroyed market, tossed food and bottles of water down below, where people gathered with outreached arms.

"We have to use whatever we see here, on the street and also in the supermarket," Demar Walker explained, sitting in a shaded area down the street from the store to escape the heat and 80% humidity.

He said he and others had to climb into the market due its roof caving in and took "what we can". They tossed water and items to others also in need.

"We didn't be selfish, we had to throw food to other people," he said.

Nearby, others told the BBC of a local pharmacy also being looted in Black River, describing anarchy as people ran in and out carrying armfuls of drugs and alcohol.

"I saw items covered in mud being hauled out," Aldwayne Tomlinson told the BBC. "At first, I thought the place was still open, but then I really got a second glance.

"I heard a lady say, 'Mi need go get some alcohol.' That's when I knew they were looting the pharmacy as well," he said.

A short walk from the market, Jimmy Esson leaned against a massive metal beam that had been knocked to the ground.

"I lost everything, all my things," he said. "We need food. We have no food."

Survival is the primary concern atop most people's minds here. The other is the rising death toll. Officials in Jamaica said on Thursday that at least 19 people had died in the country, a big jump from the five that had been counted the day before. Another 30 have died in neighbouring Haiti due to the storm.

"My community, we have dead bodies there," Mr Walker said.

He said he, like many others in the area, still has not heard from family and doesn't know if they made it out of the storm alive. Mr Walker is stuck in Black River, sleeping in whoever's house is still standing that will accept him, he says, while his 8-year-old son is in Westmoreland, the next parish over.

Westmoreland shares Jamaica's western coast, along with Black River in the St Elizabeth parish, and was also severely damaged by Melissa.

"There's no way of getting to my family to find out if they're OK," he said as his eyes began to swell. Along with the unusable roads making travel difficult, there is little to no cell phone service and no electricity or running water in many hard-hit spots.

Black River has been described as ground zero of Hurricane Melissa, the deadly category 5 that was the strongest to hit Jamaica in the country's history.

"The entire town of Black River is devastated," the town's mayor Richard Solomon has said.

He noted to local media about the desperation of residents who are looting and - while not condoning it - said he understands why it is happening.

"It is a delicate balance," Mayor Solomon said of the response to it. "Persons are seizing the opportunity to pick up what they can off the ground (from damaged stores). However, you have others being a little bit more forceful, where they are trying to get into people's properties to get all sorts of supplies."

Local officials estimate that 90% of the houses here were destroyed. Much of the town's vital infrastructure has been destroyed too, including the local hospital, police station and fire station.

"There are entire communities that seem to be marooned and areas that seem to be flattened", Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon said.

Aid supplies are starting to arrive more rapidly to the main airport in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, but smaller regional airports, some of which are located near where humanitarian assistance is most needed, remain only partly operational.

Aid agencies and the military are bringing in the urgently needed supplies from Kingston by land but many roads remain unpassable in places, including in places like Black River.

The town is about a two-hour drive from Kingston but the main road in is - at various points - flooded, damaged and clogged with cars.

Michael Tharkurdeen, a local medic, was in the town's fire station when the storm hit.

"We were upstairs, the entire bottom floor was flooded. The water was around maybe four feet going five feet. When the water came in, the seas came in, flooded everywhere," Mr Tharkurdeen said.

"Nobody could be on the bottom floor. Trust me, there were waves there about this high," he says, pointing to his shoulder.

People that did make it to him from the flooded-out buildings nearby arrived in bad condition. They had "lacerations on their hands, their feet," he says. "Kids, elders, everybody."

Mr Tharkurdee also found a man "lifeless" and with "no pulse" once the flood waters receded.

"I'm not a doctor, I'm a medic, so I couldn't pronounce him dead," he said. "All we could have done was document that and cover his body."

By mid-afternoon on Friday, a fleet of military helicopters flew into Black River - with many hoping they came with desperately needed supplies.

Armed officials carrying machine guns descended onto the streets and soon the crowds rummaging the looted pharmacy and grocery store had cleared. A line of cars that had jammed the sole road in the area had been cleared.

A relative quiet replaced the noise and chaos of hundreds of people fighting for their survival.

"St Elizabeth, we want it to come back again," Shawn Morris said of the area's future and his hopes to get aid here.

"It's not about the money," he said. "We need food and water."