MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Hurricane Melissa devastated the southwestern part of Jamaica. Jamaica's information minister described some parts as flattened. At least 28 people are known to have died. And as you might imagine, communication with that area has been difficult, but we were able to reach Elaine Bradley. She's president of the local chamber of commerce in Negril on the western coast. Ms. Bradley, thank you so much for joining us.
ELAINE BRADLEY: Yes. Thank you for connecting with me.
MARTIN: Can you take us back to when the hurricane made landfall last week? Where were you at the time? What did you do?
BRADLEY: I was at home. And I - normally, I live alone, and I live on a hill, but I buried my brother just the week before.
MARTIN: I'm so sorry.
BRADLEY: And so I have my nephew and my stepson with me, which was very, very fortunate. I mean, before the hurricane, it was like waiting for a baby to arrive. It was so eerie. And then it started. It was horrendous. And then my roof went.
MARTIN: Oh, wow.
BRADLEY: So we - so the guys that were here - my nephew and my stepson - they had to get some tarpaulin - which is a tarp - and they put it over the bed. They pushed everything together as the water started in (ph). And they went into one room, and they pushed everything together and then put the tarpaulin. And I was saying, I'm not getting out of my bed - so I had to cover with a sheet and the tarpaulin.
MARTIN: Oh, my goodness.
BRADLEY: So it just carried on right through the night. It was howling, the water pouring in. It was just like in a movie, really.
MARTIN: What about your neighbors?
BRADLEY: My neighbor, his roof went. They were outside their veranda and literally - literally videoing my roof that's blowing away. And so we videoed their roof, as well, blowing away. It was - I mean, I smile about it now, living through the experience. But my goodness, it was not good. And now I - luckily my Starlink stayed up.
MARTIN: Your Starlink stayed up? OK.
BRADLEY: Yes, yes. My Starlink stayed up.
MARTIN: So how - what are you - how are you getting information?
BRADLEY: Well, I am - I've got the Starlink.
MARTIN: OK.
BRADLEY: But other people - so my yard now is like Piccadilly Circus, which is, you know - it's like, what would you call it? It's like New York, my yard 'cause all my neighbors - I gave them the password, and all my neighbors are coming up my driveway. They line my driveway, so I am giving people possibility to connect with their family abroad.
MARTIN: Have you heard from any government leaders about what the plan is?
BRADLEY: They are doing their best. The problem now is getting gas and diesel because the generators need that. So the petrol station, or the gas station, they are inundated. They hardly have any petrol. So we are having now, like, petrol gouging, where the guys on the street, they go with gallon drums, like, five-gallon, and they're on the street side selling the petrol. But we're trying. We're resilient people, Jamaica. We will come back.
MARTIN: How long did it take, would you say, before the last big hurricane to recover, and how long do you think it's going to take now?
BRADLEY: Our government is wonderful, but they are trying their best to reach every corner. And they are now bringing food out to people - because the other thing, food is getting scarce. Some of the supermarkets - yesterday, I went to the supermarket, and most of the shelves are empty.
MARTIN: Yeah.
BRADLEY: I've seen on the news - because as I said, I'm getting YouTube, and I saw where people are crying that they haven't eaten in two days because they're stranded.
MARTIN: Oh, my goodness. Well, Ms. Bradley, thank you so much for talking with us. I don't want to use up all of your time and energy, especially...
BRADLEY: No, never.
MARTIN: ...Since you are sort of the...
BRADLEY: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...Communication link for the community. I do wish you well, and I do hope we'll keep in touch and you can let us know how things are going.
BRADLEY: Yes, please do. And we are slowly recovering. We are resilient people, and we will continue to press on. God has given us life. And once there's life, we will recover.
MARTIN: That is Elaine Bradley. She's president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce. That's in southwestern Jamaica. Ms. Bradley, thank you again.
BRADLEY: Yes. And thank you for having us. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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