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In the New Haven community of St Andrew, tucked behind Duhaney Park, families brace for storms not with official help, but with their own hands.

Here, residents like Jody-Ann Hamilton face not just nature's force but daily hardships that test their endurance.

Hamilton, 28, has lived all her life on Marlboro Avenue. Sitting by her small roadside shop, she lifts her hand to her waist to show how high the water rises whenever the community is flooded.

"It risky now fi go get hurricane," she said. "Wi a guh drown dung yah!"

Inside the shop, she and her mother carefully stack dry goods on raised shelves. And inside their house, concrete blocks are placed on the floor, beneath their most valuable furniture, to minimise water damage in the event of a flooding.

"We tiad fi water come inna wi house like a river, and wi lose wi things them," Hamilton said, shaking her head.

"Me feel like me work fi buy furniture; me tyad fi buy furniture."

Like Jody-Ann, other residents have suffered too, some even missing work because of the conditions. One woman, Sash recalled the shame and inconvenience of it all.

"Mi affi walk wid a bottle a water and when mi ketch out pan the main road mi wash offf mi foot and lotion again," she said, noting that the short three-minute walk from her home to the main road often feels like a march through filth.

"Nothing caah help yuh, all wen yuh wear di water boot, nothin caah help yuh cause the water high."

She and her mother have lived in the area for more than five years, never expecting this kind of life.

Outside, a wide puddle glistens in the sun. She gestured toward it. "Yuh know how long the rain fall and dat deh deh so? Yah so close to the hilly area, so once likkle rain set up we a go get likkle water," she said, meaning even a light shower leaves the road flooded.

But water isn't the only challenge. Getting to the community whenever it rains is another hindrance.

"Wi caah take taxi from outta road come a dem place yah worse them hear bout New Haven, them say no, no," Hamilton said.

Residents sometimes offer drivers extra money just to get a ride home. And when the water is high, cabbies avoid the area.

"Only one likkle old man, name Norman, is him alone nuh fraid a the water," Hamilton said.

Even when the skies are clear, runoff from the hills keeps the roads flooded for days.

"The likkle rain weh fall wah day take days fi run off," she said. According to Hamilton and others, the authorities have done a poor job in cleaning and maintaining the drainage system, which includes the heavily silted Duhaney River and Sandy Gully.

When the water rises, the family rushes to meet the children with waterboots, so their school shoes don't get ruined. Inside their home, all the furniture sits on blocks, a permanent defence against the next flood.

Hamilton remembered November 2023 as the worst she's ever seen.

"High water ketch me a me breast," she said, folding her arms tightly across her chest. But the floods bring more than just water.

"Dem ketch how many crocodiles the last time," her mother recounted.

"Them ketch one big mother snake, one big snake get weh inna the area and dem affi ketch it." She measured the length from her shop to a stack of blocks several metres away.

"The snake never hurt nuh body because them ketch him fast, one long snake so, it big and have a good size."

Her mother has lost count of how many pieces of furniture she has replaced over the years.

"Is this year mi buy a new [living room] set," she said, glancing toward the carpenter across the road. "Is him me use fi build me furniture, me a one a him regular customer."

As hurricane season looms, the people of New Haven prepare as best they can not just for the storms, but for the long, hard days that follow.

"We just haffi hold we faith and hope seh one day, things change fi better," her mother said quietly, her eyes fixed on the muddy road outside.

She added: "Nuh body nuh member bout New Haven people," she said with a weary sigh. "Mi convince seh round yah so a the forgotten village."

New Haven falls in the St Andrew Western constituency, which is represented in parliament by Anthony Hylton. Last year, in the State of the Constituency Debate, he blamed successive administrations for the recurring nightmare experienced by residents of New Haven. He said that state agencies have failed to control the silting of the Duhaney River and this has resulted in the flooding of communities like New Haven.

"The lives of the people of New Haven are severally disrupted whenever there is sustained rainfall anywhere in the catchment areas," the member of parliament said as he called for urgent action.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has subsequently announced that the government will be spending $300 million to carry out essential work on the Sandy Gully in Kingston and St Andrew.

The country's works minister, Robert Nesta Morgan, said the Government will be spending approximately $832 million on critical mitigation work across the island, ahead of what is projected to be an active 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.