Cave Valley Residents Returning Home

Several persons in Cave Valley, St. Ann have returned home, now that the floodwaters caused by Hurricane Ivan, has receded.
Due to flooding of the area, some 70 persons took shelter at the Clarksonville All-age School in the parish. Shelter Manager, Marlene Reittie, told JIS News that persons from Cedar Valley, Cumberland and Clarksonville also came to the shelter.
She noted that help for the victims came from the Clarksonville Baptist Church and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM). “We were able to feed the people,” she said.
Mrs. Reittie said that by Sunday, September 12, some persons who lost their roofs left the shelter to help themselves.
Merlene Walker, a resident of Ocho Rios, gave relief items to the victims. “After listening to the report on the radio, my sister, Margaret Walker and I were moved to put items of clothing together for these people,” she told JIS News.
“We are just so happy to help the people, because some of them have lost just about everything,” she added.
One of the victims, Stacy-Ann Smith, said she was pleased with the treatment at the school and for the items she had received. “It is hard to go home, because there is a lot of mud and we didn’t save anything,” she told JIS News.
Owner of a hardware store in Cave Valley, B.A. Brown, said the building was totally flooded, and “everything has been wiped out”.
He pointed out that volunteers and employees were helping him to clean up the store.