Heavy rain and high winds flatten houses on East Coast Demerara

Dec 15, 2013 News

When many persons are busy cleaning and “putting away” for the upcoming Christmas holidays, two families on the East Coast of Demerara are looking for a shelter following a devastating squall which destroyed their homes early yesterday morning.
Houses belonging to Nanette Williams at Airy Hall, Mahaicony and Doris Nero

Doris Nero’s house at Beterverwagting came crashing down during high winds and heavy rain yesterday.

of Beterverwagting were flattened, while the roofs of a few other buildings were blown off and trees uprooted by the high winds and heavy rains which intensified shortly after 05:00 hours.
Beginning early yesterday morning, non-stop showers and heavy gusts of wind pounded the Coast, and apart from the physical damage to houses and tries, it also resulted in power outages in several areas.
Except for Williams, who received minor bruises to her head, there were no reports of major injuries to persons in the affected areas.
The 58 year old Williams lived in a single flat wooden house with her son Marvin Alves.
Yesterday was not the first time that high winds threatened the structure, but having nowhere else to go, they remained in the house, hoping against all hope that they will be spared.
Williams related that around 05:00 hours yesterday she and her son were awake when they felt the house shaking as it initially withstood the onslaught of the heavy winds and rain.
She was lying on her bed when the structure came crashing down.

This heap at Airy Hall, Mahaicony was once the dwelling place of Nannette Williams and her son Marvin Alves.

“I don’t know what really happened. I don’t even know how I get out of the house,” Williams said.
It was her son Marvin who rescued her from the rubble.
“The first thing I did when this happened is to get her out of the house. I found her off the bed just where the wardrobe was. I found her between the wardrobe. She was crying a lot. I was just thinking that by the grace of God to get her out,” Marvin Alves recalled.
For now, he and his mother, both unemployed, are seeking refuge at a neighbour’s until they can get some assistance to erect at least a temporary shelter.
“It will really be a gloomy Christmas for us,” he lamented.
Further down the Coast at Beterverwagting, some residents were busy picking up the pieces after the high winds left a trail of destruction.
When this newspaper visited the area, relatives and friends of 71-year old Doris Nero, were busy helping her salvage some of her household possessions, which are being temporarily housed at the nearby church.
She told Kaieteur News that she has been living at the Republic Drive and Slowe Street residence for the past 25 years.
There were four persons living in the house up to 08:30 hours yesterday, when it was flattened by the high winds.
“The breeze and then the rain, and the next thing you know I see all the zinc sheets starting to fly up, and then, blap! Everything on the ground,” Nero told this newspaper.

Nanette Williams and her son Marvin Alves tearfully ponder their next move.

Again, no one was seriously hurt.
“All that I received was a knock to my side,” she said.
Further down Slowe Street, the zinc sheets from several roofs were blown off, while a coconut tree in Nero’s neighbour’s yard was uprooted.
Over on Canterbury Walk, the electric wire was dangling from a utility pole while a popular shop owner had to revert to huge pieces of tarpaulin to temporarily cover her roof.
Residents are holding their breaths, since the weather forecast predicts more rain which may be accompanied by high winds.