And in other news, tonight a woman will be sleeping on a makeshift bed after her house collapsed on Sunday - with her inside of it. The beams that had been holding up the building had been on the verge of giving way for some time, and it finally came tumbling down this past weekend, leaving Florence Horne with a swollen leg and a broken home. She visited our studio to plead for any type of assistance to help her get back on her feet - and to rebuild her house. Courtney Menzies has this story.
Florence Horne was at home on Neal's Pen Road Extension on Sunday morning when the support beams holding the house collapsed, causing it to go from a second story house to a bungalow.
She has been living in the dilapidated house for the past four years, knowing that one day it would fall, but hoping that it would hold on just a little bit longer. But the posts were already leaning precariously and the wood finally splintered while Horne sat down to eat her breakfast.
She said part of the problem was that the wood became rotten from years of being soaked in water.
Florence Horne, Pleading For Assistance
"When it rain in the yard, the yard take water so the post was getting rotten, and thank God one of my grandkids wasn't under the house because they like go underneath there and build swing and every time I chase them from there when they're swinging, I tell them one of these days this house might drop on us, I didn't know when it would drop. I get up [Sunday] morning and I see it hauling from the railing, from the verandah, the Sunday morning I see it hauling from the verandah, I tell my daughter watch yah, this house might drop, I don't know when. Not knowing it would be Sunday morning after 10 the house drop with me and the fridge drop on top of me and that's why I have this swelling on my leg."
And the injury has put a pause on her desperate job search since she now needs a cane and the help of her children to move around.
One of her daughters, who lives in the house in front of hers, told us of the awfuk sight of seeing her mother lying in pain, and is now afraid the same might happen to her own house, which is also standing on dilapidated stilts.
Tara Matura, Daughter
"I was in my bed sleeping and I just heard bang but when I looked through the window, I saw my mom house dropped and I yelled, ma! And she yelled, yes? I asked if she got hurt and she said, yes I got hurt, the refridge fell on my foot. So I run out and I run in her house and I was trying to take her out but the door, I cant, because the window was blocking me by the steps and I went to my kids to get my sister and afterwards we tried to take her out and put her on the step."
"I fraid my one drop same way too, I still imagine how her house drop, I fraid my one drop with my kids and I done have a disabled daughter and I fraid it drop and my kids get hurt."
And while she hopes her home remains standing, her mother must find a way to live in the collapsed house, and even had to remake her bed post out of cement blocks. She is now turning to the public for help.
Florence Horne, Pleading For Assistance
"I have to clear the house, I have nowhere else to stay, I am walking in the house and the house, like it still wants to cave in, I have to sleep there, I don't have anywhere else to go. So I'm begging for a little help."
"Anybody, I'm begging anybody, I went to look for my area rep but they said he's not in the city, so I understand that, cause my area rep is somebody who helps people."
"I am trying to get a little job so I could help myself but right now I can't even walk good, my foot is swollen, but I still got the courage because I want to work but I need help, I need anybody that could help me, please I'm begging you for a little help."
If you'd like to help out this family, Florence Horne can be reached at 629-4409 and her daughter, Tara Matura, can be contacted at 638-9007.
