‘We just need somewhere to live’ Family living in church eight months after Melissa

Eight months after Hurricane Melissa ripped through western Jamaica, reducing homes to rubble and shattering lives, Crystal Morrison-Spencer still ends each day in the tiny office of an unfinished church hall in St Elizabeth, praying that her family of six will one day have a place to truly call home.

The 35-year-old mother of four has been living inside the makeshift shelter since the hurricane destroyed both the church building and the adjoining manse where her family had been staying.

“I have been living in the church hall... it’s like the pastor’s office,” Morrison-Spencer told THE STAR, explaining that after the hurricane destroyed the church home behind the sanctuary, the unfinished hall became their only refuge.

Her voice faltered as she admitted that all she can do now is “pray about it.”

Melissa, the most powerful storm to make landfall in Jamaica, has been blamed for at least 45 deaths. Approximately 146,000 buildings sustained major to severe structural damage, including buildings that collapsed completely or suffered extensive roof and wall loss, the Government said.

The family’s housing struggles, however, began long before Hurricane Melissa.

Morrison-Spencer, who is from New Market in the parish, explained that financial hardship forced her family from their rented accommodation about three years ago. They were later offered temporary shelter at the church because her husband had grown up in the congregation.

“My husband and... the entire generation passed through the church,” she said, explaining that church leaders allowed them to remain on the property and help care for it.

For three years, the arrangement provided a sense of stability.

Then Hurricane Melissa arrived.

Instead of worrying about where they would sleep, the family found themselves fighting simply to stay alive.

“The church is gone,” Morrison-Spencer said quietly, recalling how both the sanctuary and the manse were devastated during the storm. “Where we were staying caved in so we have just been here staying since...” she trailed off.

The only section left standing was a small concrete room at the back of an unfinished hall once used for funeral repasts and wedding receptions. Today, that cramped space serves as home for two adults and four children.

As she recounted the terrifying night the hurricane struck, Morrison-Spencer’s voice dropped almost to a whisper.

“We almost died... we almost died,” she repeated.

She recalled that she was trapped inside the house with her children as the roof and walls collapsed around them.

“We were inside the house the walls and the roof caved in on us, so we used a mattress to cover the girls because my children are very small, we hid them in a small corner.”

At the time, her youngest child and only son was just one year old, while her daughters were aged five, nine and 20.

As the winds intensified, she desperately tried to flee to the nearby church.

“Even the door bust off and fly in ... everything in the air just get up and started to just go up in the air and I ran out to go to the church and my daughter said, ‘Mommy, there is no church there for us to go.’ So we had to just stay until it was finished and there was the calm.”

The family remained trapped until the storm finally eased.

But surviving the hurricane, she said, was only the beginning of their ordeal.

Her husband had been working outside St Elizabeth when the storm struck, leaving her alone to protect their children.

The following morning, she was so traumatised she could barely move.

“A young man came and helped us... because I was just standing in one place,” she said, explaining that after finding the church locked and damaged, the resident kicked open the door so the family could shelter inside.

Since then, the unfinished church hall has become both a blessing and a painful reminder of everything they lost.