Scenes of desolation in Big Pond , Old Harbour, St. Catherine. - Ian Allen
FLOODING IS NOTHING new to residents of Big Pond in Old Harbour, St. Catherine, however this time residents say it is the worst they have ever seen as the waters washed out furniture, drowned animals and submerged several houses in the community.
Lloyd Quarries, a resident, said on Tuesday morning he woke up to find water inside his house, forcing him and his family to flee. "Wi haffi swim out and walk through bushes and come back round fi escape," Quarries said. He added that the adults had to place the children on top of furniture and then take them out one by one as water rose in the homes.
Four houses surround Quarries' property and the 20 adults and children who live in these houses had to swim out or drown. Further in the community, several houses along Sylvester Drive were submerged.
Access to the entire community was barely possible.
Residents took the news team to Sylvester Drive using a road in the bushes which had become a muddy lake. A walk that would have normally taken five minutes using the normal route took 40 minutes.
At Sylvester Drive, tales of the rising waters were worse. Lorna Myton said when she saw the rising waters, she sent away her children to Sandy Bay in Clarendon and escaped just in time before the water flooded her home. Myton, like all the other residents, says this is the worst flooding they have ever seen. "When it came up last time (Hurricane Emily), only the bottom of the bed was wet and it was on eight blocks. Now mi can't even see di roof of mi house," she said.
Roy Dunn, a taxi driver and chicken farmer whose house was also totally submerged, said he not only lost all his belongings but also lost dozens of chickens he was rearing. Before yesterday, Dunn had been to his house only once and he said when he saw it he could only laugh because it was too painful to even cry. "When mi come here yesterday (Wednesday), a only di rust pan mi house top mi coulda see," he said.
Dunn, who went to buy food when the water came in, could only watch his mother and sister inside the house, unable to bring them the food. "Mi buy food and coulden carry it go gi dem. A mi nephew seh him a go and tek di food and swim go over di house go give them di food," he said.
Many of the marooned residents who could not swim out were eventually saved from the water by a fisherman who took his boat from Old Harbour Bay and used it to manoeuvre through the water to get to them.
Some residents, who had moved into their neighbours' two-storey houses, were trapped on the top floor without food or any way of leaving.
In the meantime, residents are calling for help adding that they have no running water or electricity. They say no emergency response team has come to the community to assist and evacuate residents who have lost everything in the flood.
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