By Leonardo Blair, Staff ReporterIT WAS a wet and miserable Sunday for several residents of New Haven, western St. Andrew, and other low-lying areas of the Corporate Area as flood waters from tropical storm Lili invaded their homes, trapping some in the process.
Firemen from the Half-Way Tree Fire Brigade were kept busy with rescue missions as they roamed flooded sections of Waterloo Road, Waltham Park and settlements in Majesty Gardens where water in a nearby gully rushed through shanty town dwellings.
"The situation in Majesty Gardens is reaching crisis proportions at this time," said District Officer Dennis Lyon of the Half-way Tree Fire Brigade. "Nearly every house was flooded and so far they have seen no representatives from the state agencies, just the Fire Brigade," he said standing in the pelting rain.
Several homes in the Chisholm Avenue area of Waltham Park were flooded while a swimming pool at one residence in the Waterloo Road area, swollen by the heavy rains forced occupants to dig a trench releasing the water onto the road.
In New Haven, while some residents rafted on flood waters just for the fun of it, others along low-lying sections of Duhaney Terrace and Riverside Drive were carefully guarding expensive furniture and appliances from dirty brown water inching towards them; most of them watched helplessly as the waters flooded their bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms.
"The only thing you can do fi we now is pray to Jesus that no more rain no fall," said Judy Green who was waiting with her family for the waters to subside.
While the rescue team from the Fire Brigade was able to remove, on their backs and on stretchers, a few young and elderly persons who had been trapped inside their homes, to nearby shelters at the New Haven Seventh-Day Adventist Church and Edith Dalton James High School, many refused to leave their flooded houses for fear that their belongings would be looted if they left.
"Me will take care of miself," said middle-aged shopkeeper Gloria Hamilton. "We know about the shelter but we will take care and keep bailing out the water."
When The Gleaner left the area about 3 p.m. Fire Brigade officials were still on standby awaiting word from the Jamaica Defence Force who were called out to assist in the rescue mission.
