Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter

Sarah Johnson (left); her sister Deborah (right), and baby Tamara Robinson look sombre as they take in the damage to their home in Tamarind Tree, St. Andrew.

Six-year-old Sarah Johnson was looking forward to attending the Gordon Town All-Age School for the first time when school re-opens September 3, but now her books and bag for the new term have all been destroyed.

For her sister, Deborah Johnson, it is the same story.

On a normal day, from their bird's-eye view of upper St. Andrew from their Tamarind Tree home, which they share with their mother, Olive Johnson, and other siblings, they were quite fine. But when Hurricane Dean, with its category-four winds, hit the island, her serene location quickly turned into a disastrous one.

Olive Johnson's two-room wooden house she shared with five other family members, including four of her children and a grandchild, was almost lost when winds from 'Dean' lifted it from the stone structure it stood upon. The roof was not so lucky, as it blew away with the wind.

Two beds, along with clothes, were soaked by the heavy showers which had been battering their home from about 2:00 p.m., on Sunday.

Breeze was rough

Her 18-year-old son, Adrian, tried his best to explain: "I can't even explain it, the breeze was rough, it lifted the roof and it slammed back down. I felt as if the house was lifting with me and that is when I left."

But this was not the first time that Olive and her family had been affected by storms.

"I had another house, but during the last storm (Ivan) land slippage took it away, all we had was lost, so we had to come back to this house," Olive told The Gleaner team.

When the team arrived sometime after 11:00 a.m., with the help of her other sons, the roof had been fixed and a section of the house that had been torn off was also repaired.

Trying to achieve a sense of normality, Olive put on a pot of dumplings and yam with saltfish, and tried to wash the few pieces of clothes she could find.

For Olive's sister, 55-year-old Joyce Rookwood, her experience with 'Dean' wasn't much different.

At the moment, the safety of her house is unsure, as a landslide took away most of the dirt that surrounded the foundation.

"I don't know what the position is yet because slippage can still occur after the rains cease," she said.

Having experienced four major hurricanes since living in Tamarind Tree for the last 46 years, Joyce said while this was not the worst, it was the most fearful.

Olive Johnson shows her children's school books that were destroyed when rains from Hurrricane Dean flooded their home after they lost their roof.