Monique Hepburn, News Editor
Onlookers observe the damage done to this house in Canterbury, Montego Bay, yesterday. - PHOTOD BY HERBERT MCKENIS
WESTERN BUREAU:
AT LEAST three persons are lucky to be alive in Canterbury in Montego Bay, following a landslide that was triggered by heavy rains which pelted the island yesterday. One house was destroyed and two others extensively damaged, while the occupants slept.
"All I hear was 'bud-dup-bup' and one mind say: 'Elaine go and look is what happen.' When I step off my bed to check, I was standing in water. A part of my roof cave in because a big tree fall into it," Elaine Shepherd, a resident of Canterbury in Montego Bay told The Sunday Gleaner. Ms. Shepherd said she is in urgent need of assistance because she is fearful that the entire house could be destroyed if the rains continue.
"I just baptise so I was not afraid when it happen but I really need some help before the rain start again."
The Sunday Gleaner news team visited the community yesterday and observed men clearing fallen debris from around their houses. In one spot, the only indication that a house once stood there a few hours before, was the flooring that could be seen under trees and rocks. David Daniel, who was sleeping in the house, said he heard a loud noise that awakened him.
MINOR INJURIES
"About 4:00 in the morning, I hear a noise and I get up to check and then went back to lie down. After that, the whole house come down on me. I have to dive out of the house," said Mr. Daniel who suffered minor injuries.
The residents say that while they are conscious of the danger of another possible landslide, they are making efforts to rebuild as quickly as possible because the have nowhere else to go.
Houses in the community are built on hillsides along the North Gully, which is known to overflow its banks during periods of torrential rains. Seventy-three-year-old Evelyn Green also had a narrow escape on Saturday after the landslide tilted her house precariously over a retaining wall in the community.
She told The Sunday Gleaner that she had to jump from her bed after she heard a loud crash which shook her house.
"The house shake after something hit it and I had was to jump off the bed. I was so frighten," she said.
