Friday, March 29, 2024

Memories return with floods

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Last night’s rain at Weston St James brought back dreaded memories of the floods that took the life of well known calypsonian Carew back in 1995.
Residents at Douglin’s Road, who woke up to an impassable road with debris stacked nearly two feet high, a road that had broken away and a homes that had felt the fury of the water, said it was like reliving the “Weston floods” all over again.
Shirley Mayers and her family had to dash for cover last night, when they looked out the window and saw four foot high water rushing down the hill.
“It was about 10:45 when I got up and looked out the window. I couldn’t believe it. We had to break down the back gate to escape from the house. There was so much water gushing down the hill, that I knew if we didn’t leave, we would have been trapped,” Mayers stated.
But that in itself was a threat, because Mayers, her husband and daughter were forced to link hands and wade through water that was reaching their hips.
“The last time we had anything like this was back in the time of Carew. This was horrible,” she stated.
A neighbour in the area Joyce Alleyne said the water was very high in her home.
She too said it brought back memories of that dreaded year.
Elderly resident “Scottie” had to be rescued from his home by the boys on the block during the night, after water rose up to his windows.
Further down the coast, Gibbes St Peter was a picture of destruction.
Water there had broken off a part of the bridge, and sent debris and broken pieces of plywood from a massacred billboard over the next side of the road.
Debris trapped in gates and a broken down fence, told how high the waters in that area had been.
David Blenman, a care taker at the “Summer Place” in Gibbes, was in shock at the amount of debris piled in the gate and the height of the water mark on the wall.
“When the foreman called me this morning around 8 a.m. the whole floor was under water, and judging by the marks, this water had to be pretty high. This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this,” he said.
Blenman noted the owners who lived in England, had just returned home on Saturday after spending two weeks here with his family.
Home-owners in Sandy Lane also felt the fury of the water.
Again broken down fences, hedges stacked high with debris, a broken guard wall and sad faces, told the tale of what had happened there. (CT)

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