Flood fury

A desperate fight for survival, a missing woman feared dead and 13 residents forced from their homes. That was the grim aftermath of torrential rainfall that swept through the York Street community in Linstead, St Catherine, on Friday, leaving a trail of destruction and renewing calls for urgent improvements to the area’s drainage infrastructure.

Sixty-three-year-old Rhona Barrett is presumed dead after the Toyota Fielder motor car she was driving was swept away by raging floodwaters as she attempted to cross the Russell Pen Gully in the community.

A search party comprising police officers, firefighters and residents combed the area throughout Saturday in a search-and-recovery operation for Barrett or her remains, but their efforts proved unsuccessful.

The search extended several miles downstream to where the gully empties into the wider Rio Cobre.

Another motorist, Ernnifa Watson, narrowly escaped death after the Toyota Probox she was driving was also swept away by the powerful currents.

Watson, who was rescued by a resident after desperately clinging to a tree limb, told The Sunday Gleaner that she saw the water approaching and attempted to reverse her vehicle.

“I was trying to reverse, but the force of the water came down suddenly and washed away the car with me inside it,” she recalled.

She said she tried unsuccessfully to open the vehicle’s door before hearing a voice in her head instructing her to wind down the window.

“Then the voice said to me, ‘Press the window button’, and I did that and I was able to climb through the window.”

However, escaping from the vehicle was only the beginning of her ordeal.

Watson said the water was already up to her head when she climbed out of the car, and she was submerged twice by the rushing current.

“I started praying, saying to God, ‘I can’t die here, what would happen to my daughter?’ Then I heard another voice say, ‘Float and follow the water’,” she recounted.

She followed the instruction until she came upon a small tree, which she grabbed and used to pull herself above the rising waters.

While clinging to the tree, Watson said she noticed a head moving beneath the rubble nearby and heard a faint voice calling for help.

She broke down in tears as she recalled her desperate attempt to find a piece of bamboo that she could extend to the person, but she was unable to locate one. Minutes later, she was rescued by a resident.

Condition of the roadway

Watson believes the condition of the roadway may have contributed to the flooding.

Meanwhile, Theodore Barrett, Rhona’s devastated husband, said he last saw his wife that morning while he was on his farm. She had asked him to roast a breadfruit for her.

“The breadfruit is still by the yard right now. When I got the news, I called my neighbour to accompany me to the spot, and when I saw the car, I knew it was it,” he said.

“She is 63, just ready to live some life,” he added, describing his wife as a loving and disciplined woman who was well regarded throughout the community.

“Full of discipline, she is cool with everyone in the community. Great woman, good wife, friendly, she just love everybody, outgoing personality. You could ask for a better person than her,” he said.

Barrett blamed the authorities for what he described as longstanding neglect of the community’s road and drainage infrastructure, arguing that a proper bridge-like structure should have been constructed to accommodate the volume of water that passes through the area during heavy rainfall.

Senior Superintendent of Police Hopeton Nicholson said the search would continue despite poor visibility in the water.

“In the meantime, all the areas in the heavily vegetated space along the riverbank will be searched,” Nicholson said.

He said Barrett was presumed dead, noting that she had been seen in the water and that the extensive search, which had reached the point where the gully empties into the Rio Cobre, had yielded no sighting of her.

Nicholson commended residents for joining the search-and-rescue effort.

Failing to address the condition

Scores of residents also criticised the authorities for failing to address the condition of the roadway and the gully infrastructure beneath it.

They said the gully had overflowed its banks on previous occasions, causing severe flooding along the roadway.

One resident said people familiar with the area generally avoid travelling through it when heavy rainfall begins.

“We normally wait until after the rain stops and the flooding recedes before we venture out. If I had seen her before she got there, I would have instructed her to turn back,” the resident said.

The resident argued, however, that Barrett, who moved into the community about three years ago, may not have experienced severe flooding during her time there.

Member of Parliament for St Catherine North Western Damion Crawford, who visited the scene, said approximately 1.4 kilometres of York Street is being resurfaced under the Government’s SPARK programme at a cost of $84 million.

“It is a catch-22 situation. In fact, the Government is going to invest as to the normal circumstances, and this is not the normal circumstance,” Crawford said.

He acknowledged residents’ concerns that flooding in the area was not unusual whenever heavy rainfall occurred.

Crawford said he had contacted Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness and Works Minister Robert Morgan, raising the possibility of engineers installing a box culvert to accommodate the volume of water flowing through the area.

He said the proposal was particularly urgent given the number of communities served by the drainage system.

Crawford disclosed that the existing culvert is approximately two feet wide and is inadequate to accommodate the volume of water during periods of heavy rainfall.

Longstanding challenge

He also highlighted what he described as a longstanding challenge facing rural communities, arguing that gullies and drainage infrastructure often do not receive the same level of attention from government and decision-makers as similar infrastructure in urban areas.

Meanwhile, 13 residents living just behind Charlemont High School were also forced from their homes after floodwaters inundated their properties.

One of the affected residents, Celisi Duncan, told The Sunday Gleaner that water rushed into her two-room house, destroying clothing and soaking her bed, refrigerator and other household appliances.

“This is not the first time,” she said, adding that the residents had nowhere else to go and were therefore forced to remain in the community despite the recurring threat.

The St Catherine Disaster Preparedness Committee has responded by providing food supplies and bedding to the affected residents.

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