Bewilderment and hopelessness painted the face of 52-year-old Edward Taylor as he stood on the muddy banking looking down into the sloping terrain on what was left of his home. He repeatedly muttered a word of prayer, thanking God for sparing his life.

His rural community of Gouldbourne district in Lawrence Tavern, St Andrew, was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy but he fared the worst.

On Wednesday evening, a major landslide caused three huge fruit trees and a section of the pathway to crash down on to his two-bedroom board and zinc house, pinning him inside his bedroom.

Part of the house with his furniture and belongings was washed away into the ravine and another part was buried in mud and the fallen trees, sparing only the small side of his bedroom through which he was able to escape.

"A lucky me lucky me never dead. Me foot get pin down and me couldn't move. Me had to fight to get out," Taylor told The Gleaner.

He said around 5 p.m. following the passage of Hurricane Sandy, he was lying in bed when he heard a thunderous rumble shortly followed by a loud crash.

"When me look, everything start tear down on me on the bed. All me do is curl up and hold up suh," he demonstrated.

After he managed to get out, he realised that the pathway above with the star apple, ackee and West Indian locust (stinking toe) trees had fallen on his house.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now. All me belongings wash weh down in the gully - the foundation, kitchen, fridge, watnot, TV, me bedroom things. And see, a pare mud and tree cover di other part of the house. I don't have any money to do anything, a security work me do," he said.

Thankful that his two sons who usually stayed by him were not there, he said a neighbour offered him shelter on Wednesday night, but he was now unsure of his fate.

anastasia.cunningham@gleanerjm.com