Massive boulder awakens man, blasts bed to bits

Austin Gordon believes that had it not been for divine intervention, he and his 13-year-old son Alastous Delpesche would not be alive today.{{more}}

The Pierre Hughes, Barroullie, residents were asleep last Friday, August 13, when a boulder broke loose from one of the surrounding hillsides and crashed into their two bedroom home and landed on Gordon’s bed.

The boulder, estimated to weigh more than two thousand pounds and about four by five feet in diameter demolished one side of the wall house and destroyed the partition between the two bedrooms, bringing down a part of the wall on Alastous as he slept.

When SEARCHLIGHT visited the inhabitants of the home on Tuesday, August 17, Gordon related that moments before the uninvited boulder entered his house, he heard a loud rumbling and suspected what was about to happen.

“I had just got up to drink some water, and when I was dozing off, I hear when it leggo ‘CRACK’ and I done know is ah stone.”

“Then I hear BOOM, BOOM, BOOM… and I say this stone coming my way.”

“When I get up to make a move off, I hear ‘BOOM’- the stone done reach in the house already.”

Gordon said that moments after the incident, his son emerged from the other room covered in dust and debris, dazed but unhurt.

The unemployed man said that the situation could have been much worse, if his common law wife Harriet and two daughters: four-year-old Shanty and Shantus,15, had been at home.

Luckily for them, they were vacationing in Bequia with family members.

According to Gordon, the couple has been living in the home for thirteen years, and given the structural damage, it is now considered unsafe.

“We still staying in the house. Them tell me musn’t sleep in there, but we have nowhere else to go,” said Gordon, who has covered the opening left by the intruder with tarpaulin.

“I am not working right now and things hard, so I am appealing for help.”

Gordon, though unhappy about the situation, is content that his family, especially his son, is safe.

He admitted that he was scared, then relieved when his son came out of the damaged room.

“I feel really lucky. I have to give the Most High thanks,” he said.

As for the boulder, up to press time, Wednesday, it remains on Gordon’s bed, to be removed by the Roads, Buildings and General Services Authority (BRAGSA), which has already assessed the situation and indicated that the necessary action will be taken. (JJ)