THE NEXT few weeks promise to be more than challenging for craft vendors in Fern Gully, St Ann.

A downpour of a few hours last week Thursday night altered their business stride and today they are mopping up and counting their losses after nature's onslaught.

In one section of Fern Gully, a fire burned steadily when The Gleaner visited on Monday. Some vendors had lit it to burn their money - not literally - thousands of dollars worth of craft and other authentic Jamaican items damaged by the flood waters.

Turtles had lost their legs, birds their wings, and they were all irreparable. The owners had to condemn them to fire. Likewise, T-shirts and photo albums drenched by the murky waters found their way on to the fire heap.

Fortunately for art lovers, and perhaps to the ire of the anti-obscenity lobby, vendors were able to recover one of the controversial jumbo 'penis' carvings which, reportedly, had been carried off nearly a mile away.

"Is a lot of money wi lose," one vendor commented as another dumped a piece of a craft item.

One man lost two dozen T-shirts bearing Bob Marley's image. One of those T-shirts is normally sold for $6,000, he claimed.

Washed away

Many vendors lost small craft items which went sailing away in the muddy water that reached four feet high when it rushed through the main corridor into Ocho Rios. After the onslaught, vendors had to walk for up to a mile to recover things that had been washed away.

Craft, T-shirts, towels and other memorabilia were not the only losses. The road suffered massive destruction.

As the craft vendors lamented their losses and gave The Gleaner a glimpse of their agony, a few buses carrying tourists glided by. None stopped.

"Dat a one a di worse things 'bout it," another vendor said, referring to the dust which rose, and smacked the face and attacked the nostrils at will.

As a temporary road-repair measure, marl has been used to level the roadway through Fern Gully and other parts of Ocho Rios.

The craft vendors believe that it could take close to two months before business gets back to norm. Until then, all the craft vendors of Fern Gully can do is sit, hope and pray for a quick recovery.