In the past three days our news teams have been through the south more than a few times, travelling by plane, boat, raft, helicopter, pickup truck and rubber boot. And in all this, one of our tapes sort of fell through the cracks. On Monday, we teamed up with Krem Television to go south into storm affected communities. Krem’s Ya Ya Marin Coleman and our Paul Munnings went north east from Dangriga to the villages of Sarawee and Hope Creek. In a short time they gathered some interesting images and stories and here they are.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
The current across the Hummingbird Highway was strong enough to sweep this James Bus off the road – leaving it perched precariously on the enbankment. This abandoned bull at a home off the highway, was in deep, but had the wizened look which told us, he’d seen the worse of it. This rooster, though precariously perched looked equally unperturbed. While dogs were wise enough to go to higher ground, and those that couldn’t get a helping hand – as in this case where a struggling dog was dragged to safety.
Cars weren’t so lucky – the water dragged those one off the driveway, while this one was abused in the hood and in the cabin by floodwaters. The owner of this truck won’t have the luxury of a cleanup. In Sarawee, this mother fords across fast running waters with her young son.
Ya Ya Marin Coleman,
How did you feel when you saw the water raising?
Sarawee Resident #1,
“I felt terrible because I wondered if it would come higher than this because this is the first time this water gone so high.”
Ya Ya Marin Coleman,
You think we could do anything to prevent this?
Sarawee Resident #1,
“Hmm, I don’t know. To prevent this amount of water, you can’t stop this when this came down.”
Ya Ya Marin Coleman,
Were you aware that this was going to happen and if you did would you have been able to do more?
Frank Mena, Mayor of Dangriga
“I monitored the weather report and every ten minutes to the hour I monitor the Weather Channel to see what is going on and yesterday with my colleagues we took a stroll around town to see how the water was affecting the town and in the morning we took a stroll and the water was high and by afternoon it was gone. In my estimation, it did not warrant such a instance like it would be of this magnitude and so that is just it.”
Ya Ya Marin Coleman,
You think if you had warning in advance it would have helped?
Philbert Roches, Lost Son to Flood
“If I had a hour before it happened, we would be safe but by the time they called me, to be honest, the water was in my house and I couldn’t do anything. I got out frightened and grabbed my son and by the time my neighbour called me, water was two feet already in my house.”
Ya Ya Marin Coleman,
How high is your house from the ground?
Philbert Roches,
“About 2 feet off the ground and by the time I gone and I grabbed this bag with clothes, my baby’s clothes, grabbed my baby, water ended up like 4 feet. We came outside and I tried to swim to the mango tree and it backed me to a next mango tree to the back and after that he ended up on my back. When the water pushed me I was floating on the water. He ended up going and I bit him on the hand, that is the only way I could have tried to save him and flood came out and sinked me down more underneath and by the time I came up back it was me one. The next thing I was thinking to do was go behind him but I have to give my wife a story.”
A story that no father, no parent ever wants to tell – but in this storm – everyone has a story that must be told.
Flood Victim #1,
“When I went outside and I saw the flood and I had never seen this flood so high. So she said look again and it is coming up. So we asked what should we do because this phone was not working, only Smart was working, and thanks to that we communicated with other people to the other village to come and rescue we because we called 911, we called the police station and they said they can’t find the NEMO people and a lot of story we heard. We didn’t want to hear negative stuff because we were in a situation of life and we could have been dead.
If you point to over that side, we had 20 feet of water. Thank God my house was high because all we could see was the animals floating, we see refrig, we see TV, we see the roof and all kinds of things floating and I just imagine the people who live in lower areas of this area because we were calling for help. We who live in higher house were calling for help and nobody was responding to we. What time people they reached here was like 7:30 and the water had already gone down.”
And more than just a story, there is a hard earned lesson.
Flood Victim #1,
“Just be prepared, even though it is a flash flood, if it is a warning about a tropical storm or something - it will bring a lot of flood because the water was 20 feet high and you can’t be prepared for a flash flood but whenever you hear a tropical storm is coming, well try to monitor where it is going and try to get to a higher ground.”
And stay tuned for more flood stories as our team is just back from Gales Point and Mullins River and we’ll have a snatch of a story from those areas.
