On edge at home
Tue, June 08, 2010 - 1:53 AM
DORAN MORRIS is absolutely terrified of remaining in her Government unit at Block 10E Rosemont, Deacons Road, St Michael.
For more than 20 years the house has been cracking, leaking and, according to her, sinking.
But on Sunday night she received the biggest scare of her life when, before her very eyes, floor tiles in her living room started flying off the floor.
“I heard this thing holler for boom and I shout out what the hell is that, and when I run into the house I see tiles flying up. All I could hear was pax! pax! pax! My daughter’s friend tell me it sound as if somebody lighting dynamite under the house.”
With memories of the Arch Cot, Brittons Hill, St Michael collapse still in her mind Morris fled the house.
“I know this house gwine fall down. I can’t sleep in there anymore,” she told the DAILY NATION.
Morris said a neighbour contacted Minister of Housing Michael Lashley and Member of Parliament for the area, Chris Sinckler, who both arrived around 9 p.m.
“I took them through the house showing them all the cracks and where it is leaking, and Mr Lashley tell me that it appears to be a serious matter and that he would send the engineers from NHC (National Housing Corporation) here today,” she said.
The engineer arrived yesterday but Morris said he could not provide her with any answers.
“All he told me is that they would have to check the foundation. I ask him when he is coming back and he told me when they get the material, but he did not know when that will be,” she added.
Morris, who has lived in the house for 26 years, recalled that she kept noticing hairline cracks appearing at different places, and these got bigger over time. There was also water leaking through the roof, and the rafters in the ceiling kept shifting.
From a blue book she pointed out the hundreds of times that she telephoned the NHC and the Deacons Road Depot and the numerous officials to whom she complained. However, Morris said nobody ever turned up until two days before the 2008 general election when workmen patched up the holes.
After elections she promptly visited Sinckler and pleaded for assistance. Again NHC workers arrived and this time, said Morris, “changed the windows, dig out the cracks and holes and fill them in again and that was it”.
But Morris said she knew the problem was not solved.
“I would get up in the middle of the night and tell my daughter to listen carefully because I would hear like the house cracking. I would be lying on my couch and I would feel the floor under me sinking”.
So frustrated was she with the NHC that at one point in 2005 she refused to pay rent.
“I was putting down the money but I refused to give them another cent because nobody was paying me any attention when I complained about the house.”
Now, she is hoping that her complaints would finally be taken seriously.
“Only me, my daughter and my grandson who is a baby lives here. I do not feel safe in this house. If they are going to work on the house they would have to relocate me and my family because right now I feel this house will collapse any time soon,” she said.
Lashley told the DAILY NATION he was awaiting the engineer’s report.
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Ms Morris, have done all you could to get attention drawn to this serious and urgent situation. You don’t own that place, and Government has no obligation to find you accommodation, although they should very well assist. If I were you, I would try hard and fast to find new accommodation and get out.
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Comment LinkThis sounds like a case of differential settlement. The block of houses probably needs underpinning which is basically a reinforced section of concrete added to the existing foundations. This is just my thought but some trial pits will have to be dug. I am a Bajan living in the UK and have studied and is working as an engineer. If the plaster is removed from the walls the cracks would be vertical or near enough through the bricks. The foundation might be a lot of rubble or even the soil type might be poor but an investigation needs to be carried out as soon as possible. The government engineer needs to get on the case before something serious happens.
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Comment Link#1 she doesn’t own the house or live in one like yours so your talk is slack. Maybe you’re from the rich side get a life one day it may be one of your friends yes the house is ready to go down under like a few yrs in brittons hill gov will only come to her rescue when the tv cameras and two suns arrive god forbid the poor needs help and people like you should be ashamed of your self elaction soon come again rich man poor waman
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Comment LinkI hope that these politicians are serious and will see to it that you get the help you need
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Comment LinkFor years the houses in Rosemont had problems and still no one do any thing they will wait until some one dieeeeeeeeeee
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