By HG HELPS From Jamaica Observer

The story was the same in two Corporate Area communities yesterday, as residents of vulnerable Port Royal and Caribbean Terrace maintained that they would not budge from their homes, even with Hurricane Matthew openly threatening them with unknown action.
Fishermen used boats to barricade a section of the Port Royal community …. they called it “protecting the boats”, and sat confidently by as the rain fell amid a gentle breeze.
“We naa go no weh me boss,” one fisherman told the Jamaica Observer as he sat with his colleagues opposite the Port Royal Police Station.
His response came as a last-minute appeal by the Government for residents of the sea coast town that was once occupied by buccaneers, fell flat. Two buses operated by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company turned up close to 6:00 pm Sunday evening to take residents to the National Arena — a designated shelter. The buses remained there until 8:30 pm, with only four residents, including two children, being the distinguished passengers.
“We just haffi mel, the Creator do him thing,” one fisherman, who declined to be identified, told the Observer.
“The people dem who gone on the bus, just gone fi a regular bus ride… some a dem don’t leave Port Royal for a long time, so dem a tek a drive out. A two bus come. Even if them send 10, I not leaving my end,” he said.
Another Port Royal resident said that the town was not a place that suffered from flooding, insisting that even if rain fell for a long time, the people of the area would not be badly affected.
“Water no stay a this place ya. We don’t have continuous flooding,” the fisherman said.
“Me have me radio fi keep in touch. Me naa leave,” another said.
The people of the town roved the streets, played games, puffed on their favourite vegetable matter and engaged in idle chatter, even as the rain came down.
Along the route to Port Royal, several people stopped to take photographs, shoot videos of waves, and generally made light of the slow progress of Matthew.
The closure of the Norman Manley International Airport earlier in the morning eliminated any traffic delays.
At Caribbean Terrace, Harbour View, in East Rural St Andrew, many of the residents had already left their homes.
A group of students of the Jamaica Maritime Institute packed their bags and left from Saturday, but others flatly refused to budge, saying that they had faith that nothing serious would happen.
Two women, who were seen in the yard of one of the houses closest to the raging sea, said they didn’t want to go into shelters, and were confident that Matthew would spare them. They declined to give their names or be photographed.
High tide was prevalent along the Bull Bay main road in the vicinity of Seven Mile, as curious people, some of them residents of the area, others merely passing through, admired the waves that sometimes submerged the main road.

For more on this story go to: http://m.jamaicaobserver.com/mobile/news/Some-Port-Royal–Caribbean-Terrace-residents-remain-defiant_76085