Spring tides smash West Dem...
behind the house was also destroyed, some of the sheets having been washed away by the ocean waters.
“…All them flour, rice, sugar, everything, gone. The next band, get wah ya could ah get out, pack em up high, carry dem upstairs, pack some things there. All wah deh bottom damage. The whole fence at the back deh damage. Me ain even know bout the freezer dem and the fridge dem. The washing machine, everything,” he related.
“This nah easy wa abi pass through, me can’t bear this no more,” his wife, Vijantie, said.
Another Uitvlugt resident, Rajdai Singh, lost close to 300 chickens to the floodwaters on Thursday, as well as suffered damage to her kitchen garden. Her family’s house, located on the corner of the Old Well road, faced the brunt of the waves yesterday afternoon, when the tides came in once again, quickly flooding the yard as those residing there watched on helplessly.
“Wah go with the water go, wah save, it save,” Stewartville resident Stacy stated. Her wardrobe had come apart in the floodwaters, taking some of her clothes with it. “The whole thing loose up and the door alone I get back,” she explained. Her mattress had been soaked by the rising water, but her neighbour had been kind enough to lend her a replacement.
Outside, Stacy showed the spot in her yard where the bathroom had been knocked down by the impact of the waves.
The houses bordering the seawall at Stewartville suffered even more damage, as one resident related that the columns of his house had collapsed, bringing it to the ground. That had been the fate of several houses built on that stretch.
The waves yesterday afternoon appeared to rival the waves experienced earlier in the day. A CDC representative had related that the tides were expected to rise to 3.2 meters the highest yesterday.
Leonora Hospital
The king tides flooded the majority of the lower level of the Leonora Hospital, save for the newly built operating theatre and maternity unit, and destroyed the air conditioning units inside. Other machinery was saved because of the action of the hospital’s security, which took the initiative to move them to higher ground.
All patients of the Leonora hospital were transferred to the Mildred Cox Young Health Centre, located at Den Amstel, where they will remain until the Leonora Hospital is in a functional state again.
Junior Minister of Public Health, Dr Karen Cummings related on the scene yesterday that the health centre will be offering 24/7 service in the interim. DPI, in a release later on, stated that the health centres at Uitvlugt community centre and De Kinderen would also be operating on a 24-hour basis, and would be utilized to address emergencies.
Cummings, along with the Regional Health Officer and Deputy Director of the CDC Colonel Kester Craig, toured the facility yesterday, following cleanup efforts by the firemen based at the nearby station.
Administrator of the Leonora Hospital Kathlene Armstrong commended the firefighters for their work, declaring that they were prompt in their service. After cleanup, the men secured the entryways with sandbags to protect the facility from the tides that were to follow.