Sean Nero

A fam­i­ly of eight from Hard­ing Place, Co­corite, is singing prais­es to mem­bers of that com­mu­ni­ty for rush­ing to their aid when a tor­rent pushed down their front wall and crashed through their front doors send­ing adults and chil­dren in­to a state of pan­ic yes­ter­day af­ter­noon. "Since I liv­ing here, about 35 years, this come like his­to­ry. I nev­er see this kind of wa­ter come here, since I liv­ing here. I lost every sin­gle thing. This is his­to­ry," Hans Moni­quette, fam­i­ly pa­tri­arch told Sun­day Guardian. Rel­a­tives lo­cat­ed in Bel­mont and St James were ex­pect­ed to have tak­en them in last night. Res­i­dents es­ti­mat­ed that 4.5 inch­es of wa­ter rushed through the streets and the Moni­quette home.

"I did not pan­ic. I couldn't. I had to move the chil­dren at home to safe­ty. I had to se­cure them. I put them on top the ta­ble. They were bawl­ing. My daugh­ters were bawl­ing, be­cause it was the first time they were see­ing that," he re­called. His wife Di­an­na, 35, a hos­pi­tal at­ten­dant at the St James Med­ical Com­plex, was at work when the rains and sub­se­quent flood came. "My chil­dren called me. They were bawl­ing on the tele­phone. I work­ing right there in St James. I had to climb walls to get here. I climb over peo­ple. They told me not to go. I told them I have to go. We lost every­thing. All I have is the uni­form I came home with and this piece of clothes on me." Mean­while Akeel Si­mon, 20, of 156 A West­ern Main Road, Co­corite, was asleep when his moth­er heard a crack­ling sound and awoke him just in time to rush out of the make-shift house to safe­ty. He would take refuge in the com­fort of his moth­er's home at the same ad­dress.