St. Matthews couple describes ordeal in flood
As residents try to protect life and property in the face of the floods, tonight there is one happy story to report. On Saturday evening, Oswald Young, who we had reported was missing after floodwaters took over his farm situated outside of St. Matthews Village, was found alive and well. On Friday morning a British helicopter rescued Young’s common law wife, Margarita Bustamante and two of their young children after they were found in a tree. Family members then conducted a search for Young, but the former village chairman could not be found. This morning we caught up with Young and Bustamante in Belmopan. With the water rising fast, the couple had to make difficult decisions, quickly.
Oswald Young
“After the water came up over the land…I live on a point, so what actually happened is that the water took across and the my place becomes the river, so we couldn’t do nothing. We only could sit there and watch all the animals for the neighbours passing by the river. After I saw…because I have the experience in Gracie Rock many times, and what happen then, I decide to take them from out of the house through the window, put them into the dory and then I decide to go across and leave her over the other side. But it was just for an hour, not as what you have heard on the radio or what she had said. It was just about an hour and a half, which he decided to let us go and travel about a mile and a half down the road into water again where we could locate a bigger canoe that we could have passed her. On our return, just about fifteen yards from where we would take cross to go the house where she was left, the helicopter was there landing to pick her up.”
Margarita Bustamante
“Very bad. First time in my whole life I ever see water come so high.”
Jacqueline Woods
“So you must have been pretty relived when you saw that chopper coming.”
Margarita Bustamante
“Yes ma’am. I waved it with a white cloth and I came low, then they told me that could come back, and that’s when they come back for me.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Tell us about the rescue, what did the chopper do?”
Margarita Bustamante
“The chopper came down, pitched on the land below, then they came for us out of it, then we went in.”
Young and Neal managed to find a canoe, which they used to make their way slowly out of the flooded area. Young says the floodwaters took everything he owned including twelve heads of cattle and is presently seeking assistance from the Belmopan City Council.
