Trelawny woman suspected to have drowned in ditch
GRANGE PEN, St James — A Trelawny woman who on Saturday night reportedly went to pick up her five-yearold son in this community is suspected to have drowned in a trench filled with floodwater from the heavy rains that pelted sections of western Jamaica over the weekend.
The woman has been identified as Catherine Powell, who lived in Sherwood Content, Trelawny.
According to sky juice vendor Ranville Jacobs, Powell, as was her custom, left their five-year-old son in his care while he was on the job in Falmouth on Saturday.
But the father said he took his son to his home in Grange Pen, near Lilliput, when it started to rain.
“She leaves the child with me during the days and come back for him in the evenings. Yesterday (Saturday) evening the rain was falling and I couldn’t see her come back, so I took the child with me to my home in Lilliput,” Jacobs told the Jamaica Observer yesterday morning.
He said that yesterday, about 7:00 am, he was informed that residents discovered a body in a trench which he later identified as that of the mother of his child.
He theorised that Powell, who had not visited the community for the past four years, must have slipped into the trench and drowned before help could reach her Saturday night.
The trench was recently created to accommodate infrastructure development in the community.
“She don’t know how the place stay again. That’s why it catch her because probably she a skip through and drop in the hole,” Jacobs speculated.
“All she had to do was call mi phone and mi would go meet her. She just come and don’t call mi.”
Yesterday, residents who gathered at the ditch, situated close to Jacobs’ home, explained that it was filled with water on Saturday. However, by yesterday morning the water receded, leaving a build-up of mud.
Councillor Anthony Murray (Jamaica Labour Party, Rose Hall Division), who visited the scene, offered his condolence to the family.
“It’s a very unfortunate incident that took place here in Grange Pen, St James. I want to use this opportunity to express condolence to the family. Based on information received she was not familiar with the area and wasn’t aware of the construction that was taking place. And with the heavy rains that fell yesterday (Saturday) the entire area was saturated with water and she wasn’t aware of the area she was traversing and fell in one of the holes,” Murray said.
“What we have to do as political representatives here we have already been taking a lot of safety measures here we will have to wrap up additional measures to ensure that safety precautions increase to ensure that any similar incidents do not occur. So we are going to ensure that the scope of work is done at a faster rate and also additional measures such as signage, and where necessary put caution tapes. Very unfortunate,” he said.