New Haven bouncing back from flooding déjà vu

Sixty-nine-year-old Amanda Burton resides in New Haven, St Andrew, with her 32-year-old daughter, who has a disability.

Early-morning thunder and strong winds triggered by an approaching Tropical Storm Grace on Tuesday jolted her into preparation mode. The weather system would later unleash strong, gusty winds and widespread heavy rainfall, triggering flash floods across the island, with eastern parishes being most affected.

Late last year, Tropical Storms Eta and Zeta had dealt Burton’s home a big blow, but through the charity of others, she began to put the pieces back together just last week.

“That was last year October and I couldn’t come back till December. Dresser, settee, wardrobe, bed, almost everything was soaking wet. The water come out a di house and dem clean it up for me, but it was high inside the yard for weeks,” she recounted

Burton, who suffers from a few medical conditions, including hypertension and diabetes, enlisted the assistance of a friend on Tuesday morning to elevate the new furniture, fearing that the Duhaney River would again overflow its banks.

And overflow it did, ravaging homes and leaving the community under murky floodwaters.

“It’s terrible! Somebody come help me wash out the water out of the house this morning,” Burton told The Gleaner yesterday.

“The water came all the way up on the verandah, plus the roof leaking,” she said, adding that she has some cleaning to do, but was grateful to be alive.

“I was a bit troubled because I didn’t want the water to catch us inside here,” she adding, mentioning that she stayed at someone’s house throughout Tuesday night.

Though Grace has moved towards the Cayman Islands, a cautious Burton intends to stay another night.

Another resident, Carlene McNabb, said it was an all-too-familiar situation.

“It was a lot of rain and me haffi a sweep out water out a my place. Mi haffi a wash now ‘cause di clothes dem wet up and mi furniture wet up likkle, but mi still give thanks,” she said.

McNabb warned Jamaicans not to take these tropical storms lightly, as “one day God a go hit us really hard”.

Several New Haven residents were observed putting out furniture and pieces of clothing to dry as the sun shone yesterday. Others were mopping up water from their homes.

Marcia Mitchell agreed with McNabb that the flooding was commonplace, except that the water ran off much quicker this time around.

“It could still be better ‘cause right now the water turn on the road, instead of going in the river,” she said, as she wrung out a mop.

Mitchell, a resident for 49 years, said she raised her furniture as the rains from Grace threatened to unleash.

“If the need arises, I will move, but for now this is my permanent place. I own it, so it’s hard for me to just get up and relocate just because of flooding. It’s really lack of maintenance that causes the place to be like this,” she lamented.

Donald Wickham also noted that Tuesday’s rains flooded the community, but within an hour of the rains ceasing, he observed that run-off began.

Wickham said the recently cleaned drains were to be credited for a less devastating situation.

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com