‘From the time we hear ‘bladam!, the house just cover with water’

What started out as a relaxing movie night for Caratal, Georgetown, resident Hyacinth Jack, her sister Kay, and friends, turned into a moving experience in a flash, when the house they were in was washed from its foundation.{{more}}

“We were watching television after 11 (pm) when I get up and come out to wash my hands, then I see the water coming, so I say to myself ‘Where this water coming from,’” Jack related to Searchlight.

“As soon as I say that and I look through the window, I see the waters flushing down more. I get frightened and call my sister and then everyone run out.”

Jack said that as she and the other surprised residents watched the waters rush in, the house began to move.

They then sought refuge at the home of supermarket owner Miss Browne, where they stayed for the night.

The house was carried more that 20 feet by the waters before coming to a stop close to the beach.

In their scramble to get out of the house, Jack said that they were unable to save anything.

“We couldn’t grab nothing. I just grab my bag with my documents. The only thing we get is our clothes, but we lose everything else. Everything is wet; everything is gone.”

The sisters are thankful to God that everyone got out of the house alive, since they would not have been awake under normal circumstances.

“We ‘customed to go to sleep early if we were not up watching TV.”

Further up in the town, in the village of Dickson, Julia Glasgow was asleep, when a friend who was at her house woke her up warning her of impending danger.

“From the time we hear ‘Bladam!’, the house just cover with water.”

Glasgow, who was sitting on her porch when Searchlight met her, said that neither herself, her friend nor her nine year old grand daughter had a chance to leave the house, because the water had already engulfed it, and was flowing rapidly around the residence.

She pointed to a piece of log that was in her bedroom and said that the debris saved their lives.

“That was by the window, so we pull it in and sit on top of it until the water go down so we could get out…. It ease down about four o’clock. “

Glasgow said that the only thing that they left the house with was the clothes on their backs and was unable to salvage anything.

“We don’t save nothing at all; nothing ain’t save at all. Just what you see me have on here.

“It is the first time we ever experience this; I never ever experience for all the years I was here.”

An SUV vehicle that was parked at the side of Glasgow’s house was carried some distance to the front of the yard, with its tires buried in sand and silt deposited there by the river. (JJ)