Rockies family on guard after watching neighbour’s house collapse

As the hurricane season draws to a close, some residents across mainland St Vincent are watching the lands around their homes and keeping their fingers crossed that the worst of the heavy rains have passed.

For two consecutive weeks, St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG ) was inundated with persistent showers leading to numerous flash-flood warnings being issued by the Meteorological Services, and the online Weather Channel forecasts that scattered thunderstorms will affect SVG into the weekend.

From late Monday night on November 18 into Tuesday, persistent rains led to rivers breaking their banks, flooding across many areas on the mainland, including in Kingstown and its suburbs, resulting in numerous landslides.

A Rockies family who watched their neighbour’s house collapse into a gully as a result of a landslide told SEARCHLIGHT the proximity of their house to the disaster has made them anxious.

“Since we witnessed what happened to the neighbour all we did was pack up everything and get them close to the door. We tried to tell our Tanty to leave and go by [relative] but she said no. We preparing ourselves in the meantime if anything happen,” Akeem Laidlow said.

He said he watched his neighbour, Debbie Ashton and her family, narrowly escape serious injury in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

“Around after 12 [am] about minutes to 1 [am] I heard a shout from me Tanty that jump me out my sleep. She said ‘the house gone’. I was wondering if she mean our house and I there in the house. She said no, it’s the neighbour house. When I looked out through the window, I saw the whole house heading down into the bottom of the bank. The front part of the house went down first and then the back part followed,” he related.

“The dogs like they sense what was going to happen so when he [son] came outside, the fridge dropped and blocked the mother and the father door and he was saying ‘earthquake’, not knowing what was actually happening. He opened the door and was greeted by the cherry tree, so he had to go to the backdoor… they couldn’t come out in a safe way, so they had to go further over by the pig pen.”

Up at La Croix in the Marriaqua Valley, Barbara Cato said she has been experiencing sleepless nights since heavy rains started in early November as the land around her home continues to recede with each downpour.

“Last week around 2 am I wake up and saw the first landslide. It went down, and then they came and moved the dirt but no one said anything [to me]. Last night again when the rain started to fall, I was watching from by the window because I was scared. I kept looking and I saw when the rest went down.”

The land slippage stopped about two feet from her house and Cato said she does not know what her options are to safeguard the property which she has called home since 1999.

“If the rain keep falling, I’m not sure if it would break again or if it will stay like that. But I believe it will break again. Every time rain come heavy, it keep breaking again. Around February- March it…break,” said Cato who lives on a hillside.

“I don’t know if I would get any help. It’s kinda scary. Every time I watch it go down, it keep raising up my blood pressure. I can’t even sleep. I don’t have anywhere else to go or somewhere else to put another house.”

Communities in the Marriaqua area were severely affected by the heavy rains with landslides reported in Sayers, La Croix, Yambou, and Calder. Teams from the Roads, Buildings, and General Services Authority (BRAGSA) were dispersed across various communities to clear debris from main roads and bridges.