KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - Work crews in soaked
Jamaica cleared debris and downed power lines left in Hurricane Sandy's
wake while trying to restore electricity to more than half of the
Caribbean country Thursday.
Curfews were lifted and
international airports reopened under cloudy skies, which still
generated occasional downpours. People in hard-hit shantytowns struggled
to repair battered homes after sheet metal roofs blew off.
Authorities said Sandy
didn't cause as much damage as they initially feared when it crossed the
island Wednesday as a Category 1 hurricane. Still, the full extent of
damage was unknown in Jamaica, where some major roads were still
impassable. It would likely be days before life in many residential
areas returned to normal.
Sandy was blamed for the
death of an elderly man in Jamaica who was crushed by a boulder. Another
man and two women died while trying to cross storm-swollen rivers in
southwestern Haiti.
In Jamaica, about 70
percent of the island lost power during the storm and many towns and
cities were left without water service. Schools in the capital of
Kingston and eastern parishes were closed until next week.
The Caribbean Hotel &
Tourism Association said resorts in Montego Bay and Negril sustained no
major damage. North coast cruise ship terminals reopened to vessels.
In the impoverished
Kingston community of Maverley, Eliter Barkley swept up tree branches,
leaves and pieces of metal roofing scattered outside the tiny rum bar
where she and her relatives spent Wednesday night after Sandy destroyed
their shack.
Barkley said she and her
sister were trying to calm their terrified children when Sandy ripped
most of the corrugated metal off their small home's roof shortly after
it made landfall with sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph) about five
miles east of Kingston. Minutes later, a tree fell on part of the house,
sending the entire family screaming into the street.
"The front and the side got
mashed up good. We just ran here in the storm all wet," Barkley said
outside the Uptown Inn bar, where about a dozen adults and children
huddled together until morning.
In Haiti's capital of
Port-au-Prince, where many people still live in tents and other
temporary shelters since losing their homes in the country's devastating
2010 earthquake, entire streets gave way to rushing waters. Many people
carried belongings on their heads and in suitcases.
Rose Ducast, a 28-year-old
mother of three, said she would stay in her tarp-constructed home
despite offers from foreign aid groups for shelter. The structure was
leaking Thursday and her belongings were wet, but she said evacuation
shelters were "unlivable."
It was wet and
uncomfortable for Mariefrance Augustin, a resident of the Cite Soleil
shantytown, where Sandy caused flooding just as Tropical Storm Isaac did
when it passed over southern Haiti two months ago.
"Everything I own is wet and in the mud," said Augustin, a 32-year-old unemployed mother of a 3-year-old.
In Jamaica, all of St.
Thomas, Portland and St. Ann parishes in eastern Jamaica lost power
during the storm, said Winsome Callum, spokeswoman for the islands'
electricity provider, Jamaica Public Service Ltd. Numerous customers in
Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine also lost service.
The storm's aftermath may
be most difficult for the island's farmers. The agriculture ministry
said early reports estimate more than half the island's banana sector
was damaged.
After an aerial survey of
lush Portland parish, Parliament member Daryl Vaz said there was
extensive roof damage to hundreds of buildings and the rural area's
cultivated fields were devastated.
"There is no banana tree
standing and all crops have been wiped out," Vaz said, adding that the
government should declare the rural eastern parish a disaster area.
___
Associated Press writer Trenton Daniel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.
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2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
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