Caria Lee

Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Sigler Jack said up to press time yes­ter­day, he was un­able to give a tal­ly of how many homes were dam­aged due to Thurs­day night’s thun­der­storm.

“The whole re­gion is cov­ered ex­cept Care­nage,” he said.

He said re­ports kept com­ing as the rainy and windy weath­er con­di­tions per­sist­ed.

Yes­ter­day’s re­ports in­di­cat­ed that there was dam­age in Paramin, San­ta Cruz and Diego Mar­tin. Fall­en trees were re­port­ed on the Diego Mar­tin High­way and in Bagatelle, while roofs were blown off in Paramin, San­ta Cruz and Diego Mar­tin.

In Fac­to­ry Road, Diego Mar­tin, Njemile Webb, a sin­gle moth­er of five, said when the branch­es from a tree above her house start­ed falling, all she could have done was grab her ba­by and go un­der the bed.

“Some­thing come crash­ing down, the ba­by was on the bed, I was in a state of shock,” she said.

A branch al­so pierced the wind­shield of her car. Webb said she called the Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion to cut the tree over a month ago, but they nev­er came.

“This just added to what I’ve been go­ing through. I just try­ing to cope, I try­ing not to break down,” she said with tears in her eyes.

A police officer directs traffic at the intersection of the Diego Martin Highway and Crystal Stream Road yesterday, where a tree fell and knocked out the traffic light and an electricity pole.

ANTHONY HARRIS

Webb re­vealed that she was a do­mes­tic vi­o­lence sur­vivor and yes­ter­day’s dis­as­ter was some­thing she did not need at this time. She broke down in tears when it start­ed rain­ing again.

“Right now I start­ing to get wor­ried be­cause I would lose my items that I would have ac­com­plished over the years that right now with COVID, it hard to get them back. I don’t know what will hap­pen, I don’t have any­where to go tonight so I don’t know where me and my chil­dren will go,” she said.

Trees al­so fell on a roof next door where a fam­i­ly of 14 re­side.

Ver­na Kennedy and her son Jer­rold said yes­ter­day’s weath­er event was the worse they had ex­pe­ri­enced in the years they lived in Fac­to­ry Road.

They told Guardian Me­dia that they ap­plied for Self Help to re­pair the roof and they know about the process but ques­tioned what hap­pens in the mean­time.

“Rain is falling now. There are peo­ple with­out roofs all over the val­ley and we have to wait and there is a big hole in my roof, what we go­ing and do?” Jer­rold said, adding one of his chil­dren nar­row­ly es­caped in­jury af­ter a branch pierced part of the roof over her bed.

Over in Rich Plain Road, Diego Mar­tin, one fam­i­ly lost two roofs dur­ing the storm. Di­ane De­Fre­itas said all she did was close her eyes and pray for the winds to sub­side. She saw the dam­age when the sun came up.

“The beds wet, the roof gone, wood fall down, the place in a mess,” she said.

De­Fre­itas said she has no mon­ey for re­pairs and hopes for some as­sis­tance.

An emotional Njemile Webb cries as she speaks about the terrifying events on Thursday night during the adverse weather that caused a tree to fall on her vehicle and home at Factory Road, Diego Martin.

NICOLE DRAYTON

“I beg God that he will bless us some way for us to get back some things,” she said.

Across the hill, Veron­i­ca Noel and her fam­i­ly lost part of their roof. They ap­plied for as­sis­tance to fix it months ago but the storm came be­fore the cheque.

Noel said they were still trau­ma­tised.

“The gal­vanise just start to rip off, the roof just start to rip and I hear gal­vanise fly­ing out­side and by the time I run out here, is be­cause this whole roof done gone…one of my grand­chil­dren run out­side I had to call him back in­side be­cause he get so fright­en,” she said.

Any­one wish­ing to help those af­fect­ed can con­tact Webb at 347-5707, De­Fre­itas at 375-6256 and Noel at 394-7719.