‘I can’t even see my children’ - Hurricane Melissa leaves fisherman battered and broken

'What are your emotions like at this time?' was the question posed to Esroy Holness. His answer came not in words, but in tears.

At 49, the fisherman and mason rested his head against a wooden post for support, weeping quietly before finally choking out that he felt "battered and broken."

Once able to live comfortably in his home in Farm, Westmoreland, Holness now finds himself sleeping in a dilapidated bathroom, a victim of Hurricane Melissa's fury. THE STAR team met him in Robins River earlier this week as he wandered aimlessly, searching for even a glimmer of hope.

"A inna di bathroom mi a sleep ya now. Mi dresser save suh mi push it in deh and a it mi lay down pon a night time," he said.

Holness said the tight space is made even more uncomfortable due to attacks from unrelenting mosquitoes that have multiplied since the passage of the storm.

"When dem touch yuh skin it come in like a summen big drop and bore yuh," Holness said of the menacing disease-carrying insects.

The fisherman recalled being in Robins River when the hurricane made landfall. He had done everything he could to secure his house in Farm, believing he could ride out the storm in a small shed where he had stored a few valuable items.

"Before Melissa start, mi run go up a the shed seh mi a secure some important tings in deh, but as it start the shed blow dung," he recalled.

"Mi did tie up my house a Farm and left it. We did a build up a ting, suh nuff time a di shed mi did a stay inna, although mi have mi house," Holness said.

The fisherman said he was preparing a meal at the time Melissa made landfall, and had to abandon his pot due to the storm's fury.

"When di storm come a sum dumpling and saltish mi a cook, and when she pass through, mi lock off di gas and run out. When mi a run mi memba di food and say mi a guh turn back fa, but one sheet a zinc pass mi, and mi seh mi naah go back up deh," he related.

The hurricane also destroyed Holness's fishing boat, his main source of income. Like thousands of other Jamaicans, the father of two is unsure when he will have a stable roof over his head again.

"A from mi a nine year old mi is a fisherman and mi is almost 50 now. Mi engine mash up and dat cost about $800,000, so what mi a guh do now? Mi don't know when mi a go back on the sea, and mi don't know when mi a go back inna one house," he lamented.

He paused, running his hands down his shirt and trousers, eyes dropping to his only pair of worn shoes. But possessions are secondary for Holness. His deepest wish is to see his two children, whom he has not been able to visit since the hurricane.

"Things not suh hot fi mi, and mi barely have any food," he said.

"From the storm mi don't even get a chance to look fi mi two pickney dem because mi nuh have nutten fi give dem. Mi not even have fare to go look for dem. Mi kids dem in St Elizabeth and mi stress out. Mi nuh have nutten to give dem," he said, breaking down into tears once more.