Mighty wind snatches roofs

IT WAS the most talked about topic at Arch Hall, St Thomas, yesterday: a deafening, roaring sound of the wind, which popped the rooftops from three houses and left some residents in shock, amid the steady downpour of rain which caused flooding in some areas.
“I was in my lounge chair lying down watching television when I hear this whistling sound coming from on top. The next thing I looked I saw my rooftop flying through the air.”
That was the frightening ordeal of 65-year-old Barton Corbin, who described the incident as the worst type of rain and wind he has ever experienced in his 42-odd years living in the rural district.
“I know when [Hurricane] Janet hit Barbados, I was living in St Peter then, but nothing like that whistling noise I heard,” declared Corbin, who lives by himself in the two-bedroom wooden home.
The tornado-like wind struck the St Thomas neighbourhood around 10 p.m. Sunday.
Neighbours Winston Alleyne and his girlfriend Maxine Harris were not far away from home when the unusual weather system struck the area.
However, unlike Corbin, they only realised their house top had been removed by the gush of wind when neighbours shouted for them.
“Where we were, we heard this rattling sound between the rain but we never had any idea our house was damaged by the wind,” Alleyne said.
A third house, occupied by 48-year-old Cecil Williams, also suffered damage to its roof.
None of the three homes or their contents were insured but community spirited residents were busy up to late yesterday trying to repair some of the damage to their neighbours’ houses.
Meanwhile, flooding also impacted heavily on another resident in the area.
Renaldo Ramsay, who operates the recently established Exodus Farms, an animal farm of sheep, pigs and cows, nearly lost his prized collection of over 75 Blackbelly sheep when flood waters overran the pens.
“I got a call about six o’clock when someone tell me that the sheep were drowning.
“When I got down by the pens, I could barely see the sheep but I shouted for some friends and I was able to rescue all except one,” Ramsay said.
Luckily, his two cows were tethered to higher ground while 14 pigs had manoeuvred their way to safety from the rising waters.