( Left )Residents of Alley (left) stand at the edge of the broken bridge waving to residents of Water Lane. The Alley bridge broke in on two Tuesday night, separating the communities.( Right )This boy makes his way along the broken Cassava Piece main road in Victoria Town, Manchester. - IAN ALLEN PHOTOS
THE ALLEY BRIDGE in Clarendon now resembles a waving gallery after flood waters damaged the bridge which connected the Water Lane and Alley communities.
Yesterday when THE STAR news team visited Water Lane, residents gathered and were waving to their relatives and friends, who had gathered on the other side, on Alley. On Tuesday night, the Rio Minho turned into a 20-foot horror, snapped the bridge in two and washed away several houses. The bridge, which was something like the flat bridge connected the communities since 1949 but on Tuesday night, it went, leaving damage amounting to millions of dollars.
Some residents complain that they have no running water and this was evident as the water pipes to Alley, Water Lane, Race Course and other communities in the area broke in two, sending the commodity into the river. Residents caught water at the broken main in buckets for use at home.
In the neighbouring River View, residents worried their homes would be washed away, after seeing three houses washed away. Verna Gordon, a resident, said when she saw the water washing away the houses, she moved her furniture to the front and started to dismantle her house.
It did not seem Gordon got far as most of her house was still in tact. However, the persons living across the road from her were not so lucky. The road and a dance hall were washed away. In addition, her backyard and chicken coop were also washed away. Gordon, like several other residents, do not wish to stay but say they have nowhere else to go. "Mi haffi just siddung until it (the river) come een because mi nuh have nuh weh fi go," she said.
Other parts of Clarendon were also devastated by the waters of the Rio Minho. In Banks, fallen concrete power lines made passage through the community impossible. Since Tuesday, they have had no light or water.
Yesterday, residents from the nearby Breezy Castle, who were cut off from May Pen, tried to fill a ditch with silt dumped on the road by flood waters, so they could leave their homes.
Further up in New Longsville, tractors worked to clear roadblocks that prevented access from Chapelton to May Pen. In Spring Plain, residents were almost cut off as a river flowed on to the road and made it almost impossible for vehicles to pass to go to Milk River or May Pen.
Great Bay in St. Elizabeth was submerged and up to yesterday, residents were still fleeing their houses. A fisherman assisted with the evacuation, using his boat to take out stranded residents whose houses had been flooded by the four ponds which surround the community. In Victoria Town in Manchester, the road had split in two making it impossible for vehicles to pass.
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