Robert Lalah, Staff Reporter 
Residents of the Mammee River community look on at what is left of this building that was owned by Patricia Gordon on the banks of the Mammee River in the Gordon Town area in St. Andrew on Friday. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
HOUSES SET sail down the Mammee River, St. Andrew about one o'clock Friday morning, giving homeowners only minutes to grab what they could and dive for safer ground literally. Some residents had no option but to dive into the raging waters and swim to the other side, all the time praying that they would not be washed downstream to their death.
There were twenty-three persons altogether in several homes, living along the Mammee River banks. The frail facilities were completely wiped out by the river's turbulent, rising waters and subsequent earth-moving landslides.
The stories these residents tell of their near-death experiences and of losing everything they spent their lives working for,
are heart-rending. The Sunday Gleaner spent some time with them yesterday.
TERROR STILL IN HER EYES
We first met up with 53-year-old Cinthia Spence. She talked
agitatedly, with a look of terror still in her eyes. Her home, which was flattened by the waters of the Mammee River, was a sorry sight to behold. Everything that was inside before the storm, now lay in muddy heaps beside the crushed house. Cinthia said she was asleep when the rain started to pound a bit louder than normal. "I lay down and all of a sudden I start to feel like I was on a water bed. Then mi jump up and realise that the water was coming in under the door and through the windows," she said, gesturing wildly.
Cinthia said she then ran to the back door and opened it. "Is pure water mi let in!" she exclaimed. The lanky woman said she had no choice but to dive into the roiling waters and swim to the river's bank. There, dripping wet, she got up and watched her house disappear slowly beneath the waters, like a sinking ship.
We later met up with Samantha Brown, a 22-year-old mother of a newborn baby. Samantha sat in the shade of a large guinep tree overlooking the Mammee River. She spoke slowly, her eyes drooping. Samantha told us she had not slept since Wednesday. When she pointed over to the other side of the river, we understood why. "That was my house," she said without looking up. There was no house left, only broken pieces of wood and what looked like a few pieces of busted appliances.
Samantha said she spotted the river's swelling waters early and grabbed some clothes for her baby and ran across the road to her sister's house.
"About one o' clock, I hear a loud noise like something cracking up. I run out and look cross the road and see my house jerking up and down. It start rock and I see the whole thing start break up," she said looking down at her muddy shoes. Samantha said it was then that she realised she was about to lose all she owned. "I couldn't watch anymore so I run back inside and cry," she said.
Yesterday, as the sun shone on the Mammee River for the first time in days, Samantha could clearly see the damage done to her home. Everything was gone, but she was far from despondent.
"I have my baby still. I thank God cause that's all I need. It could have been worse," she said with a big, bright smile.
