‘The whole ah Georgetown mash up’ – Resident

“The whole ah Georgetown mash up!”

“Everything Gone.”

“I Never see anything like this in my life.”{{more}}

While everyone is thankful that there was no loss of life following the disaster which took place in the Windward area on Monday, these sentiments and others like them were repeated over and over by many persons who may or may not have suffered directly by the flash flooding which wreaked havoc in the area.

When Searchlight visited a number of stricken home owners and residents in the area as early as 7am Tuesday morning, some were still in a state of shock, while others were still in the process of removing sludge and mud-covered belongings from their homes.

One such person was Ian Dallaway, a Basin Hole, Langley Park, resident who said he, like everyone else, was caught off guard by the raging waters.

“I was sleeping when my neighbour wake me and tell me the river come down; and I dey by the window watching the river,” Dallaway recalled.

“When I saw the water coming up back this way, I try to run to the back door; but when I run inside there, the water buss the back door and rush in pon me. So I had to jump up on the window there and I dey pon the window for at least an hour and a half before I could come out of here.

“Then some guys come and stay by the back and tell me to jump and I make a spring and jump and they grab me.

Dallaway said that he lives at the home with his 17-year-old son, who was staying elsewhere when the drama unfolded.

He said that his rush to get out of the building prevented him from salvaging anything from the house.

“Set, TV, DVD, fridge, stove everything gone through…. I feel real sorry about what happen, but I give God thanks and praise that I still have life yuh know.”

A little further up, 94-year-old Joseph Nathaniel Jack sat outside of his mud-filled home, pondering his next move.

“I don’t know how long I have to sit here, because I don’t know where to stay.”

‘Jackie’, as he is called, also related that he was awakened when the river burst its banks and began to fill his home.

“I peep out the window and ah see a big stone hit the house down there… when I get up off the bed the water was reaching me this high (pointing to his knees). A fellow come and take me out and put me on his shoulder.”

Villagers were alerted that Jackie was still in his home by 16-year-old Devon Baptiste, who considers himself the old man’s caretaker.

Jackie was taken to another villager’s home to spend the rest of the night. At sunrise he returned to his home, where Searchlight found him sitting, where he repeated the by now familiar words: “Everything gone.”