Missing or dead? - St Elizabeth family hunts for man swept away by Melissa’s floodwaters

Shamar Sammonds disappeared into the raging floodwaters while trying to retrieve belongings swept from his home in Parottee, St Elizabeth, the day after Hurricane Melissa slammed Jamaica.

His family is convinced he was carried away by the surge, yet after days of searching along the coastline, no trace of him has been found.

"That morning, he was walking on the street... but we don't call it a street no more, we call it water," said his cousin, Evon Daley, who has tirelessly combed the coastline, mangrove swamps, and broken drains since the disaster in a desperate search for Sammonds, a fisherman.

As of Thursday, the official death toll from Melissa stood at 45, with nine deaths under investigation and 15 persons reported missing. Where Sammonds fits into that count remains unclear. The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management referred THE WEEKEND STAR to the police, who had not provided any information at press time.

Parottee, the small fishing village where Sammonds lived, was among the first communities hit. Roads were washed away, trees uprooted, and homes battered by hurricane-force winds and surging floodwaters. Residents were left stranded without electricity or running water, struggling to make sense of the destruction around them.

Daley described the deadly hazards that the storm left behind: "The drain break out, and when them drain break out, you have a thing them call quicksand. If yuh step in it, it will pull yuh right down."

Sammonds, carrying a knapsack, is believed to have stepped into one of those unstable silt pockets. "After him get inna it, him start cry fi help," Daley said. A neighbour threw a rope twice, but the current proved merciless.

"The way how the wave and current a gwaan, the drain move so fast, him never catch it. The current haul him weh," Daley added.

Sammonds' disappearance has cast a heavy, painful shadow over the storm-battered community.

"We been a look for him... and all now we caah find him," Daley said, his voice thick with sorrow. "We walk the drain every day, we walk the shoreline."

Hours before he vanished, Daley spoke with Sammonds about their near-death experience during the hurricane.

"In the morning me and the man talk, and the same time me and the man talk, a the same time him go dung go get him death," Daley said. "Him himself never know."

When Melissa made landfall, Parottee was among the first communities to be struck. Residents fled from house to house as water levels rose at terrifying speed.

"Oh my God, a we first Melissa lick, eno," Daley said, his voice cracking. "If a night that storm come, I wouldn't be here talking to you. I would be gone. During the day, the whole place get dark like a night, and the two a we and everybody else a run from house to house when the water start rise."

Trapped between the rising sea in front and the swamp behind, residents found no safe refuge.

"We looking for refuge and there is no refuge," Daley said, his voice heavy with fear, grief, and determination.