Some hard-hit by Harvey

YESTERDAY was a sad day for some Barbadians whose homes were touched by the trail of Tropical Storm Harvey.

Heavy winds blew off roofs in the areas of Parish Land and Providence Christ Church, while some residents in Speightstown St Peter had to clean their homes which were affected by flooding.

Gushing water even shifted one Round De Town, Speightstown house from its foundation and killed a number of rabbits and two dogs.

At Gills Terrace in Speightstown, a husband and wife were scratching their heads as they studied how they would replace their household items, and especially the newly bought school books and other essentials for their two children – all damaged by water.

Rudolph Underwood told The Barbados Advocate that he was at work when he received a call that his wife Melanie and their children had been trapped in a flooded house.

He said his wife informed him that after waking up to realise the water had reached “as far as the bed head”, she attempted to get out with their eight and nine-year-old sons, eventually receiving help from neighbours.

“Everything damaged – the fridge, the stove, everything gone. I don’t know how, but it is a fresh start for us. In terms of where we are going to go, I am not 100 per cent sure,” Underwood said, noting that he was glad that his family was not swept away by the water.

“It was a horrible experience, especially for the children who woke up and see the bed covered with water. I tried to get them up on the dining table, but the water was still coming up,” a saddened Melanie said.

The Underwood’s neighbour, Eversley Warden, recalled that it was not easy “fighting the current to get me and my mother out of that water.

“From 3:30 this morning out here began flooding and this is not the first time it happen. This was happening from since the 80s and they need to do something about that canal that causing the problem. If you see how the whole of Church Street, going down to Speightstown, was like a river. People out here had to run out of their houses,” Warden said.

Not too far away, at Round De Town, resident Melanie Vieira said she was felling distressed since she only managed to save one of her three dogs and had to say goodbye to all the rabbits which her family raised to eat and to earn an extra dollar.

She said her family of five also lost all of their household items and felt when the house shifted from the foundation, as they were still inside. Vieira recalled that she had to be pulled from the house by a rope because “the water was so rough”.

“It was not an easy experience; it was scary!” Vieira said.

Barbados Labour Party (BLP) candidate for St Peter Colin Jordan said he was quick to gather some young men from the area to assist in the process of clearing mud out of houses. The candidate said he also took a bobcat to assist in the effort of clearing the mud from the area.

“There are people who are also traumatised and that is one of the things that we need to speak about when we are dealing with disaster management. When we can get people to respond, they deal with the physical and infrastructural issues, but there are people who have emotional challenges after waking up and finding the house full of water and children screaming,” Jordan noted, promising to assist all those affected however possible.

Opposition Leader Mia Mottley also visited affected residents. (AH)