This battered and damaged roadway is the sole route connecting residents of deep-rural community Mill Bank in east Portland to the rest of Jamaica. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

In February, torrential rains battered east Portland, ripping apart already ravaged roadways, cutting off the community of Mill Bank from the rest of the parish.

Six months later, residents of the deep-rural district (known mainly for their plight after losing eight members of their community in a market-truck accident in December last year) are still stranded.

Earlier this year, the National Works Agency (NWA) responded by erecting bright-yellow signs warning motorists that the roadway, known as 'Friday', was closed.

Since then, no further work has been done on the area and the residents claim they have heard nothing from the authorities.

So if the community's sole link to the outside world (i.e. schools, hospitals, police stations, morgues and markets) has been cut off, how have the residents survived?

The answer: sheer creativity and self-reliance.

They have since used large rocks and silt from the river to pack the roadway, creating for themselves a footpath out of the community.

However, vehicular traffic has been unable to enter or exit the area, except for a few desperate motorists in small cars who are willing to risk the trip across the dilapidated roadway, which precariously overlooks the Rio Grande Valley.

Disaster in Port Antonio

For a farming community, which depends significantly on the revenue that is generated from the produce that is sold at the markets in Port Antonio and Kingston, this can spell disaster.

"No market truck don't come up here since February," farmer Jacqueline Gray told The Sunday Gleaner recently. "The truck come and stop at 'Friday', and we affi charter car to go to 'Friday' to meet it.

"That cost we extra, cause we have to pay the car and then pay the truck, and if your load cyaan hold inna one trip, yuh have to pay for two trip plus the truck," Gray said.

The farmer also claimed that only one person in the community had been willing to use his small car to make the numerous trips up and down the rocky roadway to meet the market trucks in the morning.

Young farmer Ian Swaby, who has become a hero in his community for his dependability, said he made close to 20 trips a week.

"Mi start from about 12:30 in the morning and mi mek bout three to five trips a day, back and forth. Mi nuh finish till bout 8 o'clock," he said. "It rough, cause sometimes when mi finish, mi tired bad."

Swaby said the wear and tear on his Toyota Corolla motor vehicle was just as "dreadful", as he had to work on the car every week.

The residents told The Sunday Gleaner that life had become even more unbearable since February, as almost every aspect of their existence had been adversely affected by the eroded roadway.

Students going back to school will also have it hard, as they will also have to find innovative ways to get to school.

"All four o'clock they have to wake up in the morning so they can get something to bring them to 'Friday', and then take something from 'Friday' to school," one resident said.

The residents of Mill Bank are even more upset about how they have been treated by the authorities, who, they say, have showered them with promises.

Many argue that the weeks following the devastating crash in which 14 people were killed was the only time they received so much attention from politicians and other dignitaries.

empty promises

"Mill Bank is forgotten lands," resident Errol Francis said. "They come in and they make all kind a promises, and then we nuh hear from them again," he said.

Member of Parliament for eastern Portland, Dr Donald Rhodd, said he was quite aware of the residents' plight and argued that he had done all in his power to help. He said he was awaiting word from the Ministry of Transport and Works as to when it would begin work on the road.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com