Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer

This house was destroyed by fire in Redlight district in St. Andrew on Tuesday. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

The mountains were not enough to protect some residents of Redlight district in rural St. Andrew as some houses received a lashing during the passage of Hurricane Dean on the weekend.

As our news team travelled to the community, just above Irish Town, on Tuesday, the ravages of 'Dean' were apparent. Several downed electricity poles and fallen trees were strewn along the roads, while in some sections the loose land found its way onto our path.

"Dis ruffer than Ivan," com-mented Aldus Crossbale, who had the roof to his house almost completely torn off by Hurricane Dean's rough winds.

Seventy-year-old widower Neville Burton was even more unlucky.

"One room gone and the whole a the verandah mash up and this mawnin when me go de the whole a the crockery mash up," he told our news team of what was once his two-bedroom house.

On top of that, he had no food, he said, and was only spared a chicken by another resident whose shop also lost its roofing after the passage of the hurricane.

No family

"Me no have no family up here. Me have a sister and a brother in St. Elizabeth, but me cyaa reach them and me wife son live in Portland," he said. He has been trying to call them up to Tuesday, with no success. He would try to have a neighbour call them again later.

A family of 12 also found themselves in need of a roof during the hurricane after fire destroyed their two adjacent houses on Friday night.

"Dem only call me and then seh 'Fire, fire!' and we run out of the house!" said 14-year-old Shani Oldfield, who shared the house with her parents, grandmother, two other grown relatives and seven children.

As Hurricane Dean came closer, the family huddled together in another relative's house just a few chains away from theirown.

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com