Near miss
Single mom, kids spared after boulder smashes Westmoreland board home while away
Published:Thursday | April 21, 2022 | 12:12 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
Jamanda Kinglocke was still in disbelief as she looked Wednesday at the boulder that smashed into her makeshift board house in Kilmarnock, Westmoreland, two days earlier, which would have endangered the lives of her four young children had the family been home.
Even as relatives and neighbours engaged in thanksgiving at Kinglocke’s fortune, the single mother of three-year-old twins as well as a five-year-old and eight-year-old stared blankly as she pondered an uncertain future.
Much was destroyed: the refrigerator, radio, fan, and other possessions.
The 25-year-old, who is unemployed, is grateful that no one was home when the mishap occurred some time after 5 p.m.
“On Monday evening, I got a call from my mother that a rock stone rolled into my house. I was scared and shocked, and the first thing that came into my mind was to come home. It was heavy rainfall which caused the rock to loosen, and I heard a thunder that shook the ground, so everything came down,” said Kinglocke.
“And even the window was mashed out and the door was minced into pieces. But no one was inside the house, everyone was away at the time,” Kinglocke explained.
Jenis Robinson, a neighbour who came to offer assistance at the time, believes that if Kinglocke and her children had been home, they might have been injured or killed.
“When the heavy shower came down, I heard this heavy rumbling, and then the rock just came right down, and the sound it was making when it hit on the house, it was a terrible sound,” said Robinson.
“When you look where the bed is and where the rock licked on the bed foot, none of them would have been saved as they would have been asleep. It would be pure mourning right now, but God is a good God!”
But with more rainfall forecast this week, what remains of Kinglocke’s fragile home could be a casualty of another rockslide if heavy showers persist.
12-year-old dead
Western Jamaica is still in anguish after 12-year-old Jennel Walters died in flood rains on Tuesday after the vehicle in which she was travelling with three relatives was washed away into the Montego River.
Wednesday’s search came up empty for 68-year-old Beryl Walters, Jennel’s grandmother, who is feared dead.
Grandfather Berris Walters, 71, and aunt Shannon Walters survived.
Daniel Lawrence, member of parliament (MP) for Westmoreland Eastern, urged Jamaicans to carefully consider the safety of potential building sites for their homes even as he promised to secure assistance for Kinglocke.
“No one should really consider, much more to do something like this, to build a house with so many boulders above the house,” said Lawrence.
“It is really dangerous, and I would not advise anybody, anywhere, to build a house under such a dangerous situation.”
But that was not an option for Kinglocke, who disclosed that she could not secure a more favourable location than her family-owned property.
She has already sought assistance from Food For the Poor to rebuild the house.
“It was my cousin who gave me this spot, and I was not expecting such a thing to happen. If I receive some help, I would build a retaining wall to prevent the rocks from coming down,” said Kinglocke, who has been staying with relatives since the incident.
The single mother, whose last job was as a temporary clerical assistant at Kilmarnock Primary School, told The Gleaner that she had mustered assistance from friends and community folk to cobble together the board home some time in August 2021. Now, she has no funds for a sustainable fresh start.
Persons who wish to assist Jamanda Kinglocke may contact her at 876-819-5513 or 876-410-1603, or contribute funds to the National Commercial Bank’s Black River branch, account number 674189249.