Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
Pedestrians wade through torrents of water in Bull Bay after the passage of Hurricane Dennis on Friday, July 8. - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
IT WAS a garish scene of destruction and desperation mixed with a tinge of hopelessness in 11 Miles Bull Bay,
St. Thomas Friday as residents swamped the streets after being washed out by flood rains and mudslides caused by Hurricane Dennis.
Echoing cries for help bounced off the mountains
surrounding the valley community as several motorists attempted desperately without success to go further into the interior of
the parish along roadways
transformed into obstacle courses by serious mudslides, rushing waters and huge boulders.
For the residents of this community, Dennis took most of what many of them took a lifetime to build.
"It (Dennis) blow down mi house, mi mattress wet up. Mi next door neighbour house blow right down. Which part we walk go a wi yard is like a riverbed now. I never know it would a be this bad, mi think it was just a little rain. It very dangerous," said 32-year-old Stephanie Stewart. "Even the grave the water lift up, tomb and casket wash way."
"Dennis took everything from me," said Rosalee Burnett 52. The woman, gaunt with grief, stared at the remains of her house like she was trapped in a pit. She tried to be stoic by accepting her ill fortune as the "will of God." "It is the hands of God. I cannot fight down God because it's his handiwork but when the water reach, I could not do nothing more than take up mi bag with me test glasses and mi Bible and mi hymn book."
But Rosalee could not manage her mentally-troubled 24-year-old son. He panicked. "I had to ask some people to help draw out my son because him get panic and wouldn't leave. I had to tell him that the house going wash away." Rosalee and her son spent the night in a half-finished house next door but by Thursday
morning, the shock of their
devastation hit them fresh again.
Her son refused his breakfast and spent the morning gazing at his mud-covered room. "It look like I will have to take him to the doctor because him still panic," said Rosalee.
HELPING NEIGHBOURS
Others in the community like shopkeeper Robert Bailey who missed the wrath of Dennis, spent his time helping his neighbours. "Hurricane Dennis wasn't too bad for me but it was really bad for some people. I had to shelter some 26 something people last night. Mi have a box-body truck which house 12 people last night (Thursday night). Two slept in the front ... I had to sit up all night," said Robert. A newly-constructed bridge in the community was also washed away.
In the meantime, other residents have reported corpses being washed out of graves and are now pleading with the authorities to clear the roadways as quickly as possible so they can get supplies.
