As Vincentians continue to count their blessings and assess the damage done following the passage of Hurricane Tomas, a mother of two is more than grateful that she and her children are still alive.{{more}}

21-year-old Racquel Jessop, an employee of the Allan Smith Family Bakery, was feared dead by many persons who saw the damage done to her Ottley Hall home.

But luckily, Jessop, her six-year-old son Lester and four-year-old daughter Shanielle were not at home when tragedy struck on October 30.

“I had done leave earlier in the afternoon, and was staying by my boyfriend father on the other side,” Jessop said.

The young woman told Searchlight, that after being sent home from work because of the hurricane warning, she wisely decided to leave the rented abode, which is situated under a bank at the edge of the main Ottley Hall road.

“After they said there was a hurricane watch and there was no work, I came home and decided to move, because I didn’t feel safe there; a tree had fallen on one side of the house, but it didn’t do any damage.”

“I told my son to just get some clothes, and was back and forth to the house, because I had all my things in there.”

Jessop said that around 4 pm, while she was helping to secure the roof at her boyfriend’s father’s home, she noticed that a part of the hill overlooking her home was missing.

“I look across and could see the main road and say ‘Don’t tell me that tree drop on my house’.”

“I went down the road and when I see what happened, I started to cry. I felt real bad,” she said.

Jessop said that she was since able to get a number of items from the two-bedroom house, which is being held up by a lime tree in the yard.

She said that she has been promised assistance from members of the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO), who passed through the area on Sunday making their assessments.

“They say they will give us food and do what they can; but I am hoping I can get some help with a house I am planning to build in Ottley Hall,” Jessop stated.

Meanwhile, Jessop’s next door neighbour Amealia Porter, is pondering if she should remain in the area.

“I don’t feel safe, because that part of the hill over my house is rock, and I don’t know if it will come down too,” she lamented.

Porter disclosed that the two homes in her yard house eight other relatives, including her mother, siblings and her children.

“I don’t know what to do, because I have nowhere else to go.”

Porter recounted hearing the devastation that demolished her neighbour’s home.

“I heard the trees breaking and then when I hear the loud crash and my house shake, I get frighten for them; but later someone told me they were not at home.”(JJ)