A house is not a home and now homeowner needs help

A Hattieville fire victim is still struggling to find shelter months after her house was gutted by a blaze. Gilda Flowers’ house was destroyed back in May; she made the news because another house assigned to a Hurricane Richard victim would have been taken from him to be given to her. That plan didn’t go down well and chaos erupted in the village. Residents then came to Flowers’ rescue and another house was built for her. You would think it is the end of her woes, but News Five’s Delahnie Bain found out otherwise.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting

Hattieville resident, Gilda Flowers, lost her house in a fire back in May and since then; the single mother and her two daughters have been living in deplorable conditions. With a large portion of the roof missing, nature has not been kind to the disadvantaged family.

Gilda Flowers

Gilda Flowers, Fire Victim

“We get wet every time ih rain and we di get bother by tarantula and scorpion and two times I si snake een yah and di other night di pickney dehn get bite by scorpion because do house mi deh eena dark and den ih look like dehn neva si di scorpion di crawl and di children dehn get bite. They start to scream. The other night I wake up with wah tarantula di crawl pan me and we di go through hell eena dis place yah.”

The house is surrounded by overgrown bushes and muddy waters, which has been sickening Flowers’ six and nine year old daughters.

Gilda Flowers

“Right now di lee gial sick wid cold and fever because sake ah di wet. Sometimes ih get wet cause we cover wid plastic pan di bed and sometimes deh get up when ih di rain and den dehn get wet and dat dah we di sicken dem.”

Delahnie Bain

“Even the condition of the yard, do they have to walk through this to get to school?”

Gilda Flowers

“Dehn noh have rubber boots, dehn noh have nothing fi walk eena dis mud and dis wata so dehn have to walk barefoot and come out fi get to school. Dehn hold dehn tennis eena dehn hand.”

Delahnie Bain

“How have you all be managing—we’ve been having a lot of rains lately?”

Gilda Flowers

“Every time di place full ah wata I have to get down pan mi knee and wipe di floor because I noh got mop, I noh got nothing. And I can’t lef di wata deh because dehn wah get more sick and mosquito wah start to hatch. So I try get rid ah di wata.”

Weeks after the fire, materials were donated for a house to be rebuilt for Flowers, but there is now a financial obstacle in the way.

Gilda Flowers

“From long time I neva si di chairman. Just di other day I si ah when di storm mi di come and ih tell dehn need seven hundred dollars. Ih seh di house done build but ih need seven hundred dollars fi move it. I noh know if dah lie or dah true.”

Delahnie Bain

“Do you have any way of getting that kind of money?”

Gilda Flowers

“No ma’am, I noh have nobody fi give me dehn kinda money deh. If anybody out there di listen, we need help. Please help us because we really need help yah. We noh got nothing and plus we di suffer eena dis house.”

Flowers says they have received a little help from villagers, but they are in need of much more.

Gilda Flowers

“Dehn got some good woman round yah, Miss Bambi and Nurse and Miss Paula; dehn try help me wid some uniform. But right now dehn noh got nothing fi dehn foot. Dehn need shoes and dehn need other books. Only exercise book dehn have right now. I woulda hope that if anybody out there listening, if they could donate dah seven hundred dollars so we could move from this place yah because dis place dah punishment.”

Delahnie Bain for News Five.

We tried to contact Village Chairman, Gilbert Domingo, for comment on Flowers’ house, but our calls went unanswered.