Jarmila Jackson, Features Writer

With a seething underbelly of violence and foundations built on impermeable soil, living on the banks of the McGregor Gully in southeast St Andrew is literally a disaster waiting to happen.

Yet, for many of the residents, no force of nature has had as devastating an impact as Tropical Storm Gustav.

One week after the storm hammered the zinc fence-lined shantytown, the streets are still in a shambles and the six-foot-high watermarks on 60-year-old Mason Algus Williams' walls are still visible.

However, during the storm, he braved the waters to aid in the rescue of seven others who were hanging on for dear life on a window ledge.

"I was in my house when the rain started falling, covered up," said Williams. "One mind seh to me seh, 'You stay there cover up an nuh know seh yu haffi go go out deh'."

Using the branch of an ackee tree, Williams climbed on to the roof of the house next door to join forces with his son and another man who had been calling out for help for his family stuck on the other side.

Alma Archer, one of the seven who were stranded, recounts her granddaughter's fear.

Hold on

"She said, 'Grandma, I can't bear it anymore, I'm going to give up', and I told her to hold on a just a little bit longer because we knew that someone would come. If we were on the ground we would have drowned," said Archer.

In torrential rain and neck-high water, fighting a current that threatened to pull him under, Williams swam, taking the three children first, and then transporting them all to a rooftop where they would wait for the fire brigade to take them to the nearest shelter.

Yet, had it not been for a bed which had been pushed to the surface by the water, Williams would not have been able to save himself.

"I went in there, drew them up and pushed them to the top," said Williams. "But then, when I did that, could I get myself out?"

Eventually, by pushing the bed against a wall, he was able to again climb to safety.

Now, without much of a home left, Williams and a myriad of other residents of the McGregor Gully continue to await relief from government agencies.

jarmila.jackson@gleanerjm.com