Rain-damaged Ned Hut road causes struggle for senior citizens
Senior citizens residing in Dallas Castle, St Andrew, are pleading for the frequently travelled Ned Hut main road to be fixed. The elders are extremely worried as to what may happen while whey travel along the roadway that was severely damaged by rain these past few weeks.
A 73-year-old man, who goes by the name Grey
Beard, told THE STAR that he now has to be in the company of someone else when he’s walking along Ned Hut road.
“The rain mash up the place bad. Water mash up the road and some of the road turn gully. It is hard to travel because I am not so fit and I have arthritis. A my area this, so me nuh fraid or worry about violence … the people dem know me. It’s just the road now that giving me trouble,” he said.
“I travel on the road regular so anything can happen. I can fall and damage myself, so I have to get aid from someone. My great-grandson now has to follow me when I am
going to my farm. I have to go to the farm every day because I plant banana and a little yam. I still have to work hard.”
NOT AN OPTION
The man says if he wants to put food on his table each day, he has to go out and work. Family and community members have advised him to stop using the road and remain indoors, but he says that is not an option for him.
“I have to do what I have to do because if I sit down in the house, I do not get what I want. The dutty tough but me still a maintain,” he said.
Likewise, 80-year-old Blandel Abrahams finds herself in a similar predicament. The woman, who has lived in Dallas Castle all her life, has to walk along Ned Hut road to go to and from church.
“It’s very bad. Me affi know how fi walk pon the road,” she told THE STAR.
“It’s hard. It wasn’t always like this. It was the rain that came the Sunday. And the rain fall again the following Wednesday… a that do the road like that.”
Another elder resident said he fell from his bicycle recently as he tried to traverse the road.
“The other day I was riding my bicycle back from my farm and I fell off of it. I was bringing back load, so I couldn’t manage them and watch which part of the road broke away. I just feel myself pitch off the bicycle,” he said.
“I had to holler out because I was so frightened. Some juveniles ran to me and help me. I ride bicycle from me a boy and I never drop off yet. I used to help my father with him farm so I was riding back and forth and that never ever happened. So, I give the farming a break … but if the road don’t fix soon, I have to continue working,” the 62-yearold man said.